Language, a term that derived from the Latin word lingua meaning tongue, can refer to a variety of concepts such as word formation and speech used by people of different countries, areas or social groups. Language is possessed by human beings and is a clear indication of the difference in human communication system when compared to those of the animal kingdom. Language helps us as humans in so many ways. It enables us to collect and preserves knowledge so that we can pass it along to the next generations (Anon 2014). But animals also have the ability to communicate with each other, but thanks to the lack of creativity and flexibility, can we now identify the differences between the two communication systems in a number of different ways. Our human language has different properties that make it unique and these properties include according to Yule (2010): cultural transmission, interchange ability, arbitrariness, displacement, creativity and duality.
Cultural transmission is a property of human language that cannot be overlooked when comparing the human communication system with the communication system of animals. This refers to how language are acquired by our children and that humans …show more content…
By the arrangement and rearrangement of phonemes, morphemes, words and phrases, humans can be creative and create new utterances. Human language is continually evolving. Open-endedness is a term commonly used for this property of language. The language of humans can adapt to new situations. Animal communication systems do not own this property. They are closed systems and cannot evolve in any way to produce new vocals signals to communicate novel experiences or events. Thus, animals can only sent out a set number of signs, whereas humans can construct an unlimited number of messages (Pandora. cii. wwu. edu,
Cultural transmission is a property of human language that cannot be overlooked when comparing the human communication system with the communication system of animals. This refers to how language are acquired by our children and that humans …show more content…
By the arrangement and rearrangement of phonemes, morphemes, words and phrases, humans can be creative and create new utterances. Human language is continually evolving. Open-endedness is a term commonly used for this property of language. The language of humans can adapt to new situations. Animal communication systems do not own this property. They are closed systems and cannot evolve in any way to produce new vocals signals to communicate novel experiences or events. Thus, animals can only sent out a set number of signs, whereas humans can construct an unlimited number of messages (Pandora. cii. wwu. edu,