LING 100 (Week 2) – Introductory Linguistics Study Guide, Core
Concepts and Lecture Review
Do animals have a language? - ANS ✔✔Both animals and humans communicate amongst
themselves and each other but that doesn't mean that animals have a language because
communication is not the same thing as language. Language is a more broad way of
communicating and language is a more specific way of communicating
What is communication? - ANS ✔✔Communication is the exchange of information. Any form of
communication consists of three steps/components
1. A sender (a person wanting to communicate)
2. A message (the thing that you're communicating)
3. Recipient (receiving the message)
Explain how human language is a specific way of communicating? - ANS ✔✔Human language is
a specific way of communicating because human language is a complex system of
communication with specific characteristics
The specific characteristics of human language are
displacement, creativity, arbitrariness, recursion, etc
Why is sign language considered a form of linguistic communication? - ANS ✔✔Sign language is
a form of linguistic communication and isn't a form of communication that isn't linguistic
because sign language has a grammar
What are the forms of non-vocal communication used by animals? - ANS ✔✔the most striking
thing about animal communication is the variety of means through which its carried out
1. Scent- chemicals used by animals specifically for communicative purposes are called
pheromones. For example, a female moth signals its reproductive readiness through the release
of a pheromone into the air, and dogs release pheromones in order to mark their territory
, 2. Light- For example lightning bugs (fireflies) use light flashes in varying patterns to signal their
identity, sex, location and different species of fireflies have different and distinguishing light
patterns
3. Colour- the colour of many animals plays an important role in their identification by members
of their species and other animals. The octopus changes colour frequently and this colouring is
used for a range of messages that include territorial defence and mating readiness
4. Electricity- certain species of eels can communicate through electricity and send electrical
impulses at various frequencies. And each species signals at a specific frequency range. 5.
Posture- Postural communication is found in both primates and non-primates, postural
communication is positioning your body in a certain way (body language (for example dogs
lower the front parts of their bodies and extend their front legs when they are playful and lower
their whole bodies to the ground when they are submissive
6. Gesture- for example, humans wave their arms in recognition of a farewell and dogs wag their
tails in excitement
7. Facial Expressions- Facial expressions are a specific type of communicative gesture and aren't
exclusive to humans closely genetically related primates have overlapping facial expressions and
students have shown that Humans are able tocan interpret these overlapping facial expressions
in other primates quite accurately
what is a sign and the two parts of a sign? - ANS ✔✔-In communication, a sign is something that
stands for something else
-communication heavily relies on the use of signs
a sign is a unit of a communication structure that consists of two parts
1. A signifier - can be a word, gesture or maybe something else that stimulates at least one
sense organ of the receiver of that message (being able to see, smell or hear that message)
2. Something signified- can be a thing, an abstraction, a feeling, the signified is essentially the
physical form of the sign (the entity from the real world)
for example, the word tree is the signifier and the image/picture of a tree you think of is the
signified because its it's the physical entity from the world
Concepts and Lecture Review
Do animals have a language? - ANS ✔✔Both animals and humans communicate amongst
themselves and each other but that doesn't mean that animals have a language because
communication is not the same thing as language. Language is a more broad way of
communicating and language is a more specific way of communicating
What is communication? - ANS ✔✔Communication is the exchange of information. Any form of
communication consists of three steps/components
1. A sender (a person wanting to communicate)
2. A message (the thing that you're communicating)
3. Recipient (receiving the message)
Explain how human language is a specific way of communicating? - ANS ✔✔Human language is
a specific way of communicating because human language is a complex system of
communication with specific characteristics
The specific characteristics of human language are
displacement, creativity, arbitrariness, recursion, etc
Why is sign language considered a form of linguistic communication? - ANS ✔✔Sign language is
a form of linguistic communication and isn't a form of communication that isn't linguistic
because sign language has a grammar
What are the forms of non-vocal communication used by animals? - ANS ✔✔the most striking
thing about animal communication is the variety of means through which its carried out
1. Scent- chemicals used by animals specifically for communicative purposes are called
pheromones. For example, a female moth signals its reproductive readiness through the release
of a pheromone into the air, and dogs release pheromones in order to mark their territory
, 2. Light- For example lightning bugs (fireflies) use light flashes in varying patterns to signal their
identity, sex, location and different species of fireflies have different and distinguishing light
patterns
3. Colour- the colour of many animals plays an important role in their identification by members
of their species and other animals. The octopus changes colour frequently and this colouring is
used for a range of messages that include territorial defence and mating readiness
4. Electricity- certain species of eels can communicate through electricity and send electrical
impulses at various frequencies. And each species signals at a specific frequency range. 5.
Posture- Postural communication is found in both primates and non-primates, postural
communication is positioning your body in a certain way (body language (for example dogs
lower the front parts of their bodies and extend their front legs when they are playful and lower
their whole bodies to the ground when they are submissive
6. Gesture- for example, humans wave their arms in recognition of a farewell and dogs wag their
tails in excitement
7. Facial Expressions- Facial expressions are a specific type of communicative gesture and aren't
exclusive to humans closely genetically related primates have overlapping facial expressions and
students have shown that Humans are able tocan interpret these overlapping facial expressions
in other primates quite accurately
what is a sign and the two parts of a sign? - ANS ✔✔-In communication, a sign is something that
stands for something else
-communication heavily relies on the use of signs
a sign is a unit of a communication structure that consists of two parts
1. A signifier - can be a word, gesture or maybe something else that stimulates at least one
sense organ of the receiver of that message (being able to see, smell or hear that message)
2. Something signified- can be a thing, an abstraction, a feeling, the signified is essentially the
physical form of the sign (the entity from the real world)
for example, the word tree is the signifier and the image/picture of a tree you think of is the
signified because its it's the physical entity from the world
