Topic two: Nature and Function of

Language
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, language is defined as the words,
the pronunciation and the methods of combining them used and understood by a
community.

Language is also defined as a meaningful sound produced by the action of

the vocal organs. It is a systematic means of communicating ideas, feeling, thoughts
and concepts by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures or marks that
can be understood. In short, language is a system that relates sounds or gestures to
form meanings.

In Introduction to Linguistics subject, I have learnt that the purposes of

language in humans differ from animal’s communication system. The sign of animal
systems are inborn. Dogs, birds, fishes, apes and bees naturally and instinctively
develop their species' signals, even if they are raised in imprisonment and away from
adults of their own species. Most animals use body language, sound and smell in
order to communicate with one another. All animals have their own signs and
language that can be understood by the same species. On the other hand, humans
acquire words and language culturally, through social interaction in their early
childhood. The process of learning language is never ending for human.

Humans language is so unique if compare to animal’s communication system.

This is because, human language allows human beings to produce an unlimited set
of words, sounds, gestures, expressions, speeches and remark, although it is
actually from a limited set of elements. In short, humans’ language is more complex
in comparison to any other forms of communication. Human language has
grammatical rules and syntax to follow and it needs to be acquired through social
interaction. Humans can express themselves in sentences of any length. A human
language comprises of nouns, verbs, and prepositions which has its own property
and categories. Meanwhile, animal communication system can only convey a limited
number of utterances that is mostly obtained genetically and not culturally.
 Human beings express their ideas, feelings and thoughts through many ways,
such as via spoken language (verbal) and gestures. For example, one may say
orally “I love you” to someone he or she loves so that the other party knows his or
her feeling. Humans also can act differently in front of someone they love. He or she
can show his or her caring attitude and wink his eyes to their loved one. This is
known as sending signal via body language or gesture. However, in animal
communication, they only can express themselves and send messages via body
gestures, smell productions and sound’s patterns. For example, a fiddler crab uses
its own claw-waving movement to attract the other clan. The movement, body’s
posture and timing will never change from time to time and from one crab to another
crab within the community. Animal will portray specific gesture or signal during
mating period. It is a fixed signal and the movement of its claw only convey one
meaning. Differ from animal communication system, human language has more than
one meaning for one gesture.

Next, humans use language as a medium to obtain knowledge. People will

talk to each other, listen to speech presentations and asking questions. The
knowledge obtained in many languages can be kept in writing form. So, the
knowledge we have can be documented. For example, we still can read
Shakespeare’s works until today and it is a wonderful works because of the
language Shakespeare used. Human language can be used in novel ways. This is
because human language can be used metaphorically and figuratively. However,
animal’s communication systems are basically non-creative. Animal cannot tell lies
or create myths. Animal do not have this kind of so-called technology in its way of
thinking. Therefore, I can say that human is more creative if compare to animal.
Animal cannot keep anything that happens in its life. It also cannot predict what will
happen in future.

Humans also use language to tell stories. For example, a person can say
something interesting, funny or sad that happened to him yesterday. Although it is
not mean to be said in present time, but he manages to tell the story to his friends.
On the other hand, animals cannot communicate about yesterday, about what might
be happened or what was not going to be happened.  Due to this fact, animal
communication systems are not unlike the repertoire of sounds of a one year old
child, who has a way of conveying interest in something instantly present, or
conveying emotional responses such as dissatisfaction, loneliness, and a few other
basic states of being. Animal use certain language only to express a feeling of pain,
to chase away the predator, a desire to mate and so on. Meaning to say that, animal
communication system is tied to a stimulus but for human, language is stimulus-
independent. The meaning of stimulus-independent is the things that someone says
is not necessarily tied to what happens to him. He can tell a story that he has seen in
television or stories that he heard from someone else. He also can tell lies.

Humans use languages for economic purpose and diplomatic relationships

with other countries. Therefore, many educated people will learn foreign languages
such as Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese and many more to build a good
relationship with other countries. Language is very unique for humans because it can
be learned by practising the language. Humans too can create new words and form
a new language that can be understood. By learning other languages, humans can
learn about the cultures of the native speakers of the language. So, language is
actually knowledge. One should uphold their own language or mother tongue
because language retention helps maintain feelings of cultural kinship.

Animal communication systems are based on three designs. First is the finite
repertory of calls. An animal may use this design of communication system to
announce that a predator is nearby. It is also used to declare that the territory
belongs to them. Another design of animal communication system is the continuous
analog signal that registers the degree of some state. For example, if the bees dance
livelier, they are trying to tell their hive mates that they have more food source. The
third design of animal communication system is the use of a series of random
variations on a theme. For example, a bird will make a new twist each time when the
song is repeated. Other examples of animal communication systems are used by
chimpanzees. Chimpanzees shaking hands and bare their teeth as a form of
greeting or reassurance. Monkeys use a grimace to signal aggression and hostility.
Male fiddler crabs wave their monster claw to attract female fiddler crabs. White-
tailed deer flicking up their tails to show alarm, and dogs stretch out their front legs in
front of them and lower their bodies when they want to play. Generally animal use
gesture and body language to convey their messages while human beings prefer to
speak to tell something.

Other than the example above, actually there are many behaviours of animal
to deliver a message. In natural animal communication, tiny creatures such as
protozoa use chemical signals. Some animals use sense of touch and movement to
convey their messages. Dogs and gees’ messages can be read or understood by
their posture. Birds use visual signals. If the bird is sick, the feathers will not open
widely. Many vertebrate and invertebrate animals use sound to communicate. For
example dolphins, birds, bats, and many other animal produce sounds that only
them can understand the meaning. All these signals have evolved to attract animal
of opposite sex of the same species especially during mating time. Next, these
signals also use to repel from enemies and competitors. Some animals use these
signals as a sign of aggression or submission. Bees use signals to advertise species
or to tell something to their species. Signals also use widely in animal to warn of
predators. Signal is a way to communicate about the environment or the availability
of food. This is reveal by bees, ants and another tiny creature. Some signals may be
instinctive, that is genetically programmed and some are learned from others. In
animal systems, each signal has only one meaning and one function.

Although some animal, for example a bird can imitate human language, it
cannot be said that bird can understand and speak human language. This is
because the bird does not understand what it is saying. A language is a sound that
can be understood by the speaker and also the listener. Since the bird itself does not
understand the language, then it is not actually speaking human language. Instead,
the bird only imitates human’s words.

In conclusion, human language is widely different with animal communication

systems. Human use language for many purposes while animal use language to
attract mates, repel enemies and competitors, as a signal of aggression or
submission, to advertise species, to warn of predators and to communicate about the
environment or the availability of food. The signals in animal communication systems
has only one meaning and one function while signals in human language can be
interpreted into more than one meaning.
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