Animals and Human Language – Linguistics Study Guide, Key Concepts and
Comparative Analysis
Communication Signals - correct answer ✔✔Behavior used intentionally to provide information
(cat hissing- angry)
Informative signals - correct answer ✔✔Behavior that provides information, usually
unintentionally (sneezing=cold)
Reflexivity - correct answer ✔✔A special property of human language that allows language to
be used to think and talk about language itself
5 properties of human language - correct answer ✔✔Displacement
Arbitrariness
Productivity
Cultural Transmission
Duality
Displacement - correct answer ✔✔Property of language that allows users to talk about things
and events not present in the immediate environment. (Santa, heaven)
Arbitrariness - correct answer ✔✔A property of language describing the fact that there is no
natural connection between linguistic form and its meaning. (the word dog doesn't look like
dog)
Productivity - correct answer ✔✔Potential number of utterances in a human language is
infinite. Humans are continually creating new expressions and utterances by manipulating their
linguistic resources to describe new objects and situations
Fixed Reference
Comparative Analysis
Communication Signals - correct answer ✔✔Behavior used intentionally to provide information
(cat hissing- angry)
Informative signals - correct answer ✔✔Behavior that provides information, usually
unintentionally (sneezing=cold)
Reflexivity - correct answer ✔✔A special property of human language that allows language to
be used to think and talk about language itself
5 properties of human language - correct answer ✔✔Displacement
Arbitrariness
Productivity
Cultural Transmission
Duality
Displacement - correct answer ✔✔Property of language that allows users to talk about things
and events not present in the immediate environment. (Santa, heaven)
Arbitrariness - correct answer ✔✔A property of language describing the fact that there is no
natural connection between linguistic form and its meaning. (the word dog doesn't look like
dog)
Productivity - correct answer ✔✔Potential number of utterances in a human language is
infinite. Humans are continually creating new expressions and utterances by manipulating their
linguistic resources to describe new objects and situations
Fixed Reference
