Animals and Human Language

Question 1

Humans are different from animals because of

Answer 1

language

Question 2

Communicative signals

Answer 2

words we use intentionally

Question 3

Informative signals

Answer 3

signals we might not have sent intentionally

Question 4

Auditory-vocal channel

Answer 4

sound is used between mouth and ear, as opposed to a visual, tactile, or other means

Question 5

Discreteness

Answer 5

speech uses a small set of sound elements that clearly contrast with each other

Question 6

Interchangeability

Answer 6

speakers of a language can reproduce any linguistic message they can understand

Question 7

Specialization

Answer 7

the sound waves of speech have no function other than to signal meaning

Question 8

Reflexivity

Answer 8

reflexivity means humans can use language to talk about language

Question 9

Displacement

Answer 9

gives humans the ability to talk about things outside of the here and now, about the far distance, past or the future, and about things that aren’t real

Question 10

Arbitrariness

Answer 10

there is no natural connection between a linguistic form and its meaning

Question 11

Cultural transmission

Answer 11

humans have a natural capacity for Language, but not for individual languages, language must be learned or acquired

Question 12

Productivity

Answer 12

Humans can reorder and create linguistic forms for an infinite variety of utterances, whenever we come across a new thing or idea, we can easily invent a new word

Question 13

Duality

Answer 13

the sounds of language have no intrinsic meaning, but combine in different ways to from elements (like words) that do convey meaning, unlike animal calls