Languages, Natural

Natural Systems as Opposed to Other Kinds of Systems

Linguists use certain criteria, known as design features, to differentiate natural human languages like American Sign Language, Hong Kong Sign Language, and Spanish Sign Language from animal communication systems as well as other communication systems used by humans. First, animal communication systems are methods that animals use to communicate with others of their kind. Well-known examples of animal communication include bees dancing to inform those of their hive where nearby honey is located, monkeys using specific calls to warn others of approaching predators, and whales singing for courtship. As for other communication systems used by humans, these are limited systems with specific functions. For example, the military has used flag waving to communicate positions and strategies. Traffic lights are used to control the flow of traffic at intersections; red means stop, yellow means slow down, and green means go. These closed communication systems are effective at communicating information, but only the kind they were designed for. They cannot communicate open-ended information.

Linguist Charles F. Hockett outlined a set of criteria that can be used to classify human languages as natural languages distinct from animal and other human communication systems. While some criteria may be true for communication systems, only for natural languages do all of these criteria apply.

Before continuing, it must be noted that one criterion was that all languages use the “vocal-auditory channel” (basically, the mouth and ears). Like many other linguists before the 1960s, Hockett assumed that speech was the only modality for language. After work by Stokoe and other signed language linguists, it became widely accepted that the “manual-visual channel” (hands and eyes) is also used by languages.

Transmission, or cultural transmission, is another feature that is used to characterize natural languages. Transmission means that the language a person acquires is one that she is exposed to early and on a daily basis. Which language a person acquires has nothing to do with her genes, her skin color, and so on. When considering other communication systems, it is difficult to see how they are culturally unique. For instance, will a Japanese dog bark differently from a German one? It will not. Dogs’ communication systems are instinctive. We could claim that dogs have a limited set of sounds used for happiness, sadness, warnings, and so on and that these sets of sounds are universal, the same for dogs all over the world. For human languages, the specific language(s) that children acquire depends on the linguistic group into which they are born. Thus, if a child was born in Kilifi, Kenya, he’d speak Kiswahili, English, and Giriama; if she was born to a Deaf family in England, she would use British Sign Language and English. In short, what language(s) a person uses depends on what is culturally transmitted; that is, it depends on where the child grows up and with whom. In addition, these languages do not need to be directly taught to children because daily, accessible input will ensure that children effectively acquire the language.

...