INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU KAMPUS SULTAN MIZAN 22200 BESUT, TERENGGANU

COURSEWORK 1 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS TSL 3101

PROGRAM: BACHELOR OF EDUCATION TESL JANUARY 2012 INTAKE

NAME I/C NO UNIT SEMESTER LECTURER

: MOHAMAD FIRDAUS BIN MAT GHAZALI : 910406-06-5131 : TESL 1 : 1 PISMP : EN. MOHD ZAKI BIN MOHD AMIN

Coursework 1: Essay Topic 2: Nature and Function of Language 1. Humans use language for purposes different from animals communication systems or the human-like languages some have been taught.

Discuss and provide relevant evidence to justify your arguments.

1.0 Introduction Human language is totally different by purposes as compared to animal communication systems or the human-like languages some have been taught. Around the globe, there are thousands forms of language spoken. Although these languages differ in their phonological, morphological and syntactic structure, each and every language serves to express unlimited variety of thought of the human mind can think of which is different from animals communication system. In 1994, an article appeared in Time magazine titled How man began. Within that article was the following bold assertion: No single, essential difference separates human beings from other animals. Yet, in what is obviously a contradiction to such a statement, all evolutionists admit that communication via speech is uniquely human, so much so that it often is used as the particular, and most important, dividing line between humans and animals. Lieberman admitted: Speech is so essential to our concept of intelligence that its possession is virtually equated with being human. Animals who talk are human, because what sets us apart from other animals is the gift of speech [emphasis in original]. Humans developed an ability to communicate through oral language, as well as express, and written thoughts. These unique abilities of communicating through a native language clearly separate humans from all animals. The obvious question then arises, where did we obtain this distinctive trait? Organic evolution has proven unable to explain the origin of language and communication. in other species. 2.0 Humans language According to Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and language scholar stated that Language is the expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words and when words are combined into sentences, this combination answering to that of ideas into thoughts. While the American linguists Bernard Bloch and George Knowing how beneficial this ability is to humans, one would wonder why this skill has not evolved In his book, Eve Spoke, evolutionist Philip

L. Trager formulated that A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates. In simple, language is a system that consists of rules like grammar and is used in order to convey and express thoughts and feelings. Human language is very unique that none of other species or creatures can learn and make use of human language effectively. 3.0 Animals communication system One way to better understand the apparently unique creative potential of human language is to contrast it with systems of communication found elsewhere in nature (Edward Vajda, 1998). The differences between animal and human communication, as we shall see, are clear but all the differences seem to derive from a single basic fact; that is humans possess a natural, inborn ability to be creative with symbols and as far as we know, while animals do not. So, let's first look at three specific systems of animal communication which are birds, bees, and apes in order to examine more closely the implications of these differences between animals and humans. Birds have two types of sound signals, calls and songs. Bird calls consist of one or more short notes and seem to be instinctive responses to danger, nesting, flocking and a few other basic situations. For example, sparrows have two types of danger calls; one is to announce that a predator is nearby, like an owl in a tree and the other is to announce that a predator is soaring overhead. These calls seem intended to coordinate group activity in specific situations. The meanings of these signs constitute a small, finite set which can't be improved. And bird calls cannot be varied to produce variations of meaning. Similarly, bird songs have limited use and functions. Although bird songs have variety of melodies and pitch, their internal elements aren't separable into meaningful units and cannot be rearranged to produce new songs which can be understood by other birds. Interestingly, although bird songs are inborn, and young birds naturally begin producing them at a certain age even if raised away from their species, the young bird must experience adult songs to reproduce the song perfectly. This is radically different from how human children acquire and use words. Children will not naturally develop the word "apple" unless they hear it first and then repeat it; they will not, without ever hearing it, naturally develop a degraded version of the word "apple" or

of any other word. The specific words of human languages are acquired through exposure and are definitely not inborn. Now, let's turn to what is in some ways a more complex system of communication, the honeybee. The honeybee system of communication consists of dances performed on the wall of the hive. In the 1960's, Karl von Frisch discovered that the Italian honeybee performs three types of dances on the wall of the hive to communicate to other bees the source of nectar. The dances are round dance, sickle dance and tail-wagging dance. Each of these dance have different purposes. The bees system of communication is capable of yielding an infinite number of different messages, like human language. But unlike human language, bee communication is limited to a single subject, for instance is the location of nectar with respect to the hive. Bees can only report the location of nectar recently detected but they cannot talk about about a wonderful source of nectar found last week. In an experiment, one bee was tricked by being made to walk in a tube 25 feet to a particularly rich source of nectar and when she returned to the hive, this bee performed the tail-wagging dance, expressing that the honey was hundreds of feet from the hive, which would have been correct if the bee had spent the same amount of time flying to the source instead of walking there. Furthermore, novice bees returning from their first nectar foray will instinctively know how to perform the dance, just like a new-born baby instinctively knows how to cry and later instinctively develops the smile reflex. The bees' dance is basically an instinct-driven response to an external stimulus, just like our laughter, sneezes, or tears but unlike our words. Then what about ape communication? Many people think that primates are at a level of development only a few steps below that of humans. In some parts of Indonesia people believe that apes don't speak because they know that if they did humans would put them to work. As it turns out, ape communication is no closer to human language than the systems of bees and birds because it is a strictly limited and noncreative system of communication. The social context of primate communication in the wild is completely different than for humans. Among apes, communication generally takes place within a single social

group composed of members of both sexes and of different ages. Primates, as a rule, have very good eyesight and much of their communication is accomplished in gestures or body language. For example, to show dominance, a primate has a relaxed posture and walks with a sort of swagger. The timid primate, by contrast, is tense and walks with its back arched as if to spring away at any moment. The meaning of gestures differs from species to species, even slightly from group to group among the same species. This seems to indicate that primate communication systems, like those of bees and birds, are largely instinctive rather than learned. 4.0 Human-like languages Human-like language is a language that is taught to animals by human; commonly to chimpanzees. Evolutionists believe that chimpanzees can learn and use human language effectively. Thus, there are a lot of experiments had been conducted. For example, in an experiment, two linguists from Berkeley, Beatrice and Allen Gartner tried to teach a female chimp Washoe to communicate using coloured blocks. By the age of 6, Washoe had learned 100 signs but couldn't put them together in novel ways or use them in the absence of the given stimulus. In other words, Washoe can only uses each symbol as an index, not as a language. 5.0 Similarities between human and animal communication Eventhough the animals communication system differ from human language, there are still some similarities, but the similarities do not indicate that the animals can learn and use human language effectively even if we taught them. So, what are the similarities between human and animal communication? The similarities are all systems of communication contain signs, units of form with specific meaning (words). Human languages contain sound symbols called words, similar with animal systems that use more varied sound symbols, but each form of the sound conveying definite meaning cannot be changed forever. 6.0 Differences between animal and human language No doubt, there are a lot of differences between animal and human language. According to Edward Vajda, the linguist, for animals, the form of the signal may be visual or auditory, but each animal system differs entirely from all human languages in many ways.

First, the signs of animal systems are inborn. Birds, apes and bees naturally and instinctively develop their species' signals, even if raised in captivity and away from adults of their own species. But, humans must acquire language through exposure to a speech community. For example, a Korean child adopted and raised in America won't spontaneously develop Korean words or sentences in an all-English speaking environment, or naturally develop a degraded form of Korean. The words of human languages are definitely not inborn. Rather, it seems that it is the ability to acquire creative language which is essential to humans. The linguist, Noam Chomsky calls this still mysterious capacity the LAD, or language acquisition device which indicates that the actual form of any particular language is definitely not inborn and must be acquired through continued exposure. No linguist disputes the fact that a child of any ethnic origin can learn any language flawlessly if raised in a community where that language is spoken. Thus, in acquiring a human language, exposure to a speech community is crucial and racial or ethnic origins in them are completely unimportant. Second, animal communication systems are set responses to stimuli. Animal communication is here and now is used to express something more or less immediately present in space and time. In other words, the signs of animal communication are used as indexes. As far as we know, animals can't communicate about yesterday, about what might be or what wasn't. In this way, animal communication systems are not unlike the repertoire of sounds of a 12 month old infant, who has a way of conveying interest in something immediately present, or conveying emotional responses such as discontent, loneliness, and a few other basic states of being. In addition, in animal systems, each signal has one and only one function. More than one sign cannot share the same meaning. For example, gorillas in the wild have three types of signals which express danger, presence of food, and desire for sex while the gibbon system of communication consists of three signals: a signal for danger on the ground, another for danger in a tree, and another for danger in the air and these three do not overlap in meaning and each meaning can only be expressed by that one sign. In contrast, the signs in human language usually have more than one meaning and each meaning can be expressed in different conditions. For example is the word gay. Gay can mean sad and also homosexual for men.

Next, animal signals are not naturally used in different ways. Animal systems are essentially non-creative. They cannot be used metaphorically or figuratively. As far as we know, animals can't lie or invent myths. Unlike animals, humans can lie, and can use language to distort or extend the world around them. Animal communication is based on a limited inventory of signs. If one learns the set of signals and their meaning then he will know the system completely; there is no creativity for extending it further. This is not the case with human language. If someone were to learn the entire set of words in any human language, you would still not know the language. Furthermore, animals are non-creative creatures thus, their communication systems are just a closed inventories of signs used to express a few specific messages only. Honeybees, for instance, can communicate only about the location of a source of nectar. As far as we know, bees do not communicate about the weather or the beauty of nature, or gossip about other bees in the hive. Lastly, human language is very changeable. Human language often changes quickly from generation to generation. For example, if you read Shakespeare, who wrote in the 16th century, you will note that the use and meaning of many words has changed and if you tried to read Beowulf in the original, you would understand almost nothing; even a dictionary wouldn't be enough to get you through the text. This is because human language evolves and changes, unlike animals communication system which only has fixed signs for limited purposes of communication only. 7.0 Conclusion In a nutshell, it is proven that human language is totally different by purposes as compared to animal communication systems or the human-like languages some have been taught. In fact, animals clearly do not have creative communication which could be called true language. But can animals be taught to use creative humanstyle languages? This question is still debated by linguists and natural scientists but the answer is probably No because animals cannot think like human and only communicate for limited purposes only.

8.0 Bibliography Lucian E. Marin (2008). What is human language? [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.marges-linguistiques.com/what-is-human-language.html. [Last Accessed 20 March 2012].

Michael D. Lemonic; Andrea Dorfman,(1994). How Man Began. 1st ed. New York: The Time.

Mano Singam (June 27, 2008). The difference between human and other animal communication. [ONLINE] Available at:www.blog.case.edu/singham/2008/06/27/the_difference_between_human_and_ot her_animal_communication. [Last Accessed 19 March 2012].

Brad Harrub, Ph.D., Bert Thompson, Ph.D., and Dave Miller, Ph.D. (2003). The Origin of Language and Communication . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.trueorigin.org/language01.asp. [Last Accessed 18 March 2012].