Properties Characteristics Unique Shared with Author

human animals
language
Vocal-auditory Hockett
channel Refers to the idea that speaking/hearing is the mode humans use for language. When Hockett first defined this feature, it did not take sign
language into account, which reflects the ideology of orality that was prevalent during the time.

Broadcast Hockett
transmission and When humans speak, sounds are transmitted in all directions; however, listeners perceive the direction from which the sounds are coming.
directional This is characteristic of most forms of human and animal communication.
perception
Rapid fade/ Hockett
Transitoriness It refers to the idea of the temporary quality of language. Language sounds exist for only a brief period of time, after which they are no longer
perceived. Sound waves quickly disappear once the speaker stops speaking. In contrast, other forms of communication, such as writing, are
more permanent.
Non-directionality
It refers to the idea of the temporary quality of language. Language sounds exist for only a brief period of time, after which they are no longer
perceived. Sound waves quickly disappear once a speaker stops speaking.

Interchangeability
Refers to the idea that humans can give and perceive identical linguistic signals, humans are not limited in the messages they can say or hear. Hockett
Reciprocity This isn't to be confused with lying (precavitation). The importance is that a speaker can physically create any and all messages regardless of
their truth in relation to the speaker. In other words, anything one can hear one can also say. Not all species possess this feature. For example,
in order to communicate their status, queen ants produce chemical scents that no other ants can produce.

Total feedback Hockett

Speakers of a language can hear their own speech and can control and modify what they are saying as they say it.

Hockett
The purpose of linguistic signals is communication and not some other biological function. When humans speak or sign, it is generally
Specialization intentional. An example of non-specialised communication is dog panting. When a dog pants, it often communicates to its owner that it is hot
and thirsty; however, the dog pants to cool itself off. This is a biological function and the communication is the secondary matter.

Hockett
Semanticity Specific sound signals are directly tied to certain meanings.

Aitchison
Arbitrariness A very soft and recognisable link between the actual final and the message, and an animal's wishes to convey an animal who wishes to warn
off an opponent may simulate an attacking attitude. A cat, for example, will arch its back, spit and appear ready to pounce.
There is often a recognisable link between the actual signal and the message an animal wishes to convey. In human language, in the great
majority of cases, there is no link whatsoever between the signal and the message. The symbols used are arbitrary. In most words, no link
 exists between the sounds used and their meaning. Onomatopoeic words such as quack-quack and bang are exceptions.

There is no intrinsic or logical connection between a sound signal and its meaning. Whatever name a human language attributes to an object is
purely arbitrary. Spoken words are really nothing like the objects they represent. Different languages attribute very different names to the same Hockett
object.

Hockett
Discreteness Language can be broken down into small discrete units which are reproducible and combinable. These units are perceived distinctly and not
continuously.

Aitchison
Displacement Most animals can communicate about things in the immediate environment only. Unlike most other animals, humans can discuss objects and
events that are removed in time and place. Human language can communicate about things that are absent as easily as about things that are
present. Human language can cope with any subject whatever, and it does not matter how far away the topic of conversation is in time and
space.
Hockett
Humans can talk about things that are not physically present or that do not even exist. Speakers can talk about the past and the future, and can
express hopes and dreams. Displacement is one of the features that separates human language from other forms of primate communication.

Creativity
(Productivity) Aitchison
Most animals have a very limited number of messages they can send or receive. Most animals are restricted in what they can communicate
about. Humans can talk about anything, and be understood. This type of restriction is not found in human language, which is essentially
creative (or productive). Humans can produce novel utterances whenever they want to. A person can utter a sentence which has never been
said before, in the most unlikely circumstances, and still be understood.

Refers to the idea that language users can create and understand novel utterances. Humans are able to produce an unlimited number of
utterances. Also related to productivity is the concept of grammatical patterning,
Hockett

Hockett
Cultural We acquire a language in a culture with other speakers and not from parental genes. This process whereby a language is passed on from one
transmission generation to the next is described as cultural transmission. It is clear that humans are born with some kind of predisposition to acquire
language in a general sense. However we are not born with the ability to produce utterances in a specific language. We aquire our first
language as children in a culture. The general pattern in animal communication is that creatures are born with a set of specific signals that are
produced instinctively. Human infants growing up in isolation produce no instinctive language.

Duality Animals which use vocal signals have a stock of basic sounds which vary according to species. The number of messages.. an animal can send
is restricted to the number of basic sounds, or occasionally the basic sounds plus a few simple combinations. Human language works rather Aitchison
differently. Each language has a stock of sound units or phonemes which are similar in number to the basic sounds possessed by animals; the
average number is between 30 and 40. But each phoneme is normally meaningless in isolation. It becomes meaningful only when it is
 combined with other phonemes. The organisation of language into two layers, one layer of mostly meaningless sounds arranged into a second
layer of larger units, makes language powerful and flexible because a great number of messages can be sent.
Physical layer: it's about the sound we make when we speak
Meaning layer: when we put sounds together to make it with meaning

(duality of patterning) Meaningful messages are made up of distinct smaller units. These smaller units (such as sounds) are virtually Hockett
meaningless until they are combined into meaningful patterns (such as words).

Prevarication Prevarication is the ability to lie or deceive. When using language, humans can make false or meaningless statements. Hockett

Hockett
Reflexiveness Humans can use language to talk about language.

Learnability Many animals automatically know how to communicate without learning. Their systems of communication are genetically inbuilt. Human Aitchison
language is by no means totally conditioned by the environment, and there is almost certainly some type of innate predisposition towards
language in a newborn child. But this latent potentiality can be activated only by long exposure to language, which requires careful learning.

Language is teachable and learnable. In the same way as a speaker learns their first language, the speaker can learn other languages. It is
worth not-ing that young children learn language with competence and ease; however, language acquisition becomes more difficult once Hockett
children pass a certain age.

Pattering Aitchison
• Human language is not a disorganised accumulation of individual items. Humans do not collocate sounds and words in a random way.
Instead, they use well-defined patterns. The “rules” subconsciously followed by people who know English do not allow some combinations
even for new words. Something similar happens with sentences, English places firm restrictions on which items can occur together and the
order in which they come. Every item in language has its own characteristic place in the total pattern. It can combine with certain specified
items and be replaced by others.

Structure Aitchison
dependence • Language operations are structure-dependent, they depend on an understanding of the internal structure of a sentence, rather than on the
number of elements involved. Moreover, the types of structure-dependent operation found in language are often quite complicated and involve
considerably more than the mere addition of items. Elements of structure can change places, or even be omitted.
Language can be regarded as a network of interlinked elements in which every item is held in its place and given its identity by all the other
items.

Features of animal communication

Ants Ants make use of the chemical-olfactory channel of communication. Ants produce chemicals called pheromones, which are released through body glands and
received by the tips of the antenna. Ants can produce up to twenty different pheromone scents, each a unique signal used to communicate things such as the location
of food and danger, or even the need to defend or relocate the colony. This level of "planning" among an animal species requires intricate communication.

Birds
Bird communication demonstrates many features, including the vocal-auditory channel, broadcast transmission/directional reception, rapid fading, semanticity, and
arbitrariness. Bird communication is divided into songs and calls. Bird communication is both discrete and non-discrete. Birds use syntax to arrange their songs,
where musical notes act as phonemes. The order of the notes is important to the meaning of the song, thus indicating that discrete-ness exists. Bird communication
is also continuous in the sense that it utilises duration and frequency. Birds even have unique dialects, depending on where they are from.

Honeybees Honeybees use the space-movement channel to communicate. They use two kinds of dances to communicate-the round dance and the waggle dance to communicate
where the food is. The speed of the dance indicates the distance to the food. In this way, bee dancing is also continuous, rather than discrete. Their communication
is also not arbitrary. They move in a direction and pattern that physically points out where food is located. Honeybee dancing also demonstrates displacement,
which is generally considered a human characteristic.