Linguistics Chapter 2 – Animals and Human Language – Study Guide, Key Concepts and
Comparative Analysis
Communitive Signals - ✔✔Behavior used intentionally to provide information
Informative Signals - ✔✔Behavior that provides information, usually unintentionally
Glossolalia - ✔✔The production of sounds and syllables in a stream of speech that seems to
have no communicative purpose (Also known as "speaking in tongues")
Displacement - ✔✔A property of language that allows users to talk about things and events
not present in the immediate environment.
Cultural Transmission - ✔✔The process whereby knowledge of a language is passed from one
generation to the next.
Productivity - ✔✔A property of language that allows users to create new expressions
(creativity, openmindedness)
Fixed Reference - ✔✔A property of communication system whereby each signal is fixed as
relating to one particular object or occasion.
Duality - ✔✔A property of language whereby linguistic forms have two simultaneous levels of
sound production and meaning (also called "double articulation")
Reflexivity - ✔✔A special property of human language that allows language to be used to think
and talk about language itself.
Comparative Analysis
Communitive Signals - ✔✔Behavior used intentionally to provide information
Informative Signals - ✔✔Behavior that provides information, usually unintentionally
Glossolalia - ✔✔The production of sounds and syllables in a stream of speech that seems to
have no communicative purpose (Also known as "speaking in tongues")
Displacement - ✔✔A property of language that allows users to talk about things and events
not present in the immediate environment.
Cultural Transmission - ✔✔The process whereby knowledge of a language is passed from one
generation to the next.
Productivity - ✔✔A property of language that allows users to create new expressions
(creativity, openmindedness)
Fixed Reference - ✔✔A property of communication system whereby each signal is fixed as
relating to one particular object or occasion.
Duality - ✔✔A property of language whereby linguistic forms have two simultaneous levels of
sound production and meaning (also called "double articulation")
Reflexivity - ✔✔A special property of human language that allows language to be used to think
and talk about language itself.
