Characteristics of Human Language

1.3. Productivity

       The ability of human beings to produce an infinite number of utterances/sentences that have never been heard or said before, and yet to be understood by other speakers.

       In animal communication every signal has a fixed reference which means that it can only refer to one idea and its meaning cannot be broadened. For example, the bird sing, the bee dance or the dolphine whistle are just limited types of communication. They only have a fixed aet of signals to choose from to convey their messages. In addition, it seems that animals cannot invent new signals in order to describe noval experience. For example, the bees have only the horizontal distance location in their system of communication. They can not create a new message to indicate vertical distance(they have no word for ‘’ up’’ in their language and they can’t invent one. Another example, monkeys use the danger signal ‘’CHUTTER’’ when a snake is around and ‘’RRAUP’’ when an eagle comes by. However, it is proven that monkeys cannot create a new danger signal CHUTTER RRAUP if there is a flying creature that looked like a snake comes by. Animals are unable to create new novel utterances whereas humans can