The earth welcomed animals earlier than humans. The evolutionary theory proves it. Before the origin of humans, the earth was inhabited by animals. Humans have a very short history as compared with animals. But now, humans are powerful than animals. There are different reasons behind it. I am going to share reason based on language. How human language plays a vital role for humans to be different from animals? How language made humans powerful?
Animals also communicate with each other but their communication has very limitations. Human language has very distinctive characteristics. Animals lack them. What are those characteristics of language? Knowing this allows us to know why humans are powerful and superior to animals.
1. Discreteness
2. Displacement
3. Arbitrariness
4. Duality
5. Productivity
6. Cultural transmission
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| Human communication |
Discreteness of language refers that human language is composed of various sets of distinct sounds. Each sound is different from others. When combined with another sound can give new meaning. The word 'rat' has a different meaning than the word 'mat'. Even with the repetition of sounds convey different meaning. Animals can not compose different sounds to enhance communication.
2. Displacement
Humans can communicate throughout time and across space. This is called the displacement of language. Being in the present, we can talk about the past events. We can talk about the future. No animal can talk about the past. Animal language is based only on the exchange between stimulus and response. For example, a dog barks 'bow-bow' as a response when there is a stimulus to barking at an instant moment. A dog neither bark by talking about the past, nor it can bark fearing about the future. Human language can communicate about the places even if we are not there. We can talk about America without being there. We can talk and know about Nepal being in Canada. But animals only perceive the current environment.
3. Arbitrariness
Human language is symbols. We all communicate based on symbols. Our language has no natural connection with words but we assign particular meaning. For example, when we use the word 'tree', it has no natural connection with a tree in actual. This is called the arbitrariness of language. It allows humans to communicate without seeing. To communicate about the river, we should not be there. But for animals, no communication is possible until they reach there.
4. Duality
Human language is composed of double articulation. It has two layers. It is a duality of language. At one layer, it is meaningless, and at another layer it becomes meaningful. For example, the sounds like t, n, e has no meaning. From these sounds, the word net can be formed which has a particular meaning and it is different from the word ten formed at a particular combination. At one level it has distinct sounds that have no meaning. And at another level, it conveys distinct meanings. This characteristic of language is lacked in animals, ultimately their communication is very limited.
5. Productivity
Productivity refers to the ability to human language to produce unlimited new utterances and sentences with limited signs. As animals communicate with instinct response to stimuli, they do not have productivity. Humans have no bounded communication but animals have. For example, if the food is on fire, animals can communicate one thing at a time. Either they communicate about food or they communicate about fire. They cannot convey two pieces of information at a time. But humans simply communicate by saying 'food is on fire.' So human language can produce unlimited meaning which can be easily interpreted by others.
6. Cultural transmission
Culture and language are closely interlinked. Culture is shared and learned norms, values, and beliefs of human beings. Language is the carrier of culture. How did humans acquire the skills of millions of years ago? It's due to the language. Through language, human can transfer their knowledge and skills from one generation to another. If language did not exist, it would be impossible for humans to transfer their culture. The philosopher Frantzon Fanon says, "To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture." Linguist K. David Harrison says, "When we lose a language, we lose centuries of thinking and knowledge." This implies that the loss of language leads to loss of culture. As animals have not language like us, they can not transfer their skills, knowledge. So animals are the same as they were millions of years ago. But people have made big revolutions in the world.