Escuela Superior de Comercio Gral.
José de San Martín
Lingüística General
Profesora Norma Argota
UNIT I
The properties of
human language
- 1 THE PROPERTIES OF HUMAN LANGUAGE
All creatures, from apes, bees, dolphins, whales to zebras are capable of...
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Escuela Superior de Comercio Gral.
José de San Martín
Lingüística General
Profesora Norma Argota
UNIT I
The properties of
human language
- 1 THE PROPERTIES OF HUMAN LANGUAGE
All creatures, from apes, bees, dolphins, whales to zebras are capable of communicating with
other members of their species.
However, only human beings have the capacity for speech.
Language is a distinctive attribute of the human species.
Human language differs from animal
communication in different ways.
It has properties which make it a unique type of communication
system.
Communicative versus informative
In order to describe those properties of human language, we should first distinguish
communicative signals from those which may be unintentionally informative signals.
A person
listening to you may become informed about you via a number of signals which you have not
intentionally sent.
She may note that you have a cold (because you sneeze) or that you are from
some other part of the country (because you
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