Blog 3, Question 1, Tom Crosby

The five properties of human language all help to differentiate ourselves from that of other species. I believe the decisive property which helps separate us is productivity. An example of productivity is that humans continually create new expressions and novel utterances by manipulating their linguistic resources to describe new objects and situations. This property is described and is linked to the fact that the potential number of utterances in the human language is infinite. The communication systems of other creatures do not appear to share this type of flexibility. This limited feature of animal communication is described in terms of fixed reference. Each signal in the system is fixed as relating to a particular object or occasion. This inflexibility is supported by the study of velvet monkeys. Among the vervet monkey’s repertoire, there is one danger signal “CHUTTER”, which is used when a snake is around, and another “RRAUP”, used when an eagle is spotted nearby. These signals are fixed in terms of their reference and cannot be manipulated. Evidence of possible productivity in the monkey’s communication system would be an utterance of something like “CHUTT-RRAUP” when a flying creature that looked like a snake came by. Despite a lot of experiments involving snakes suddenly appearing in the air, the vervet monkeys did not produce a new danger signal. If a human were to be put in a similar scenario, they would be quite capable of creating a ‘new’ signal, to respond to the stimulus. For example producing something they have never said before like “Hey! Watch out for that snake!”
In conclusion I believe that although displacement, arbitrariness, cultural transmission and duality play a fundamental part in differentiating human and animal communication, it is productivity which plays the key role. The creation of new words and utterances helps all human languages to continually evolve, adapt to new situations and as a result prosper where as the languages of other species seem to remain static.