LIN 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Animal Communication, Waggle Dance, Traffic Light
Document Summary
5 hallmarks of human language a. b. c. d. e. Used by convention - no causal or inherent relationship. Most words don"t have a direct relationships to their meaning. Higher level- they can be combined in a wide variety of ways to create many different meaning. We can talk about things and events that are not present. We can produce & understand an almost infinite number of messages by combining relatively few elements & patterns combining relatively few elements & patterns. Language is a system of patterns overlaid on patterns. B/c language is essentially arbitrary, we need to be able to recognize & use the patterns on a wide variety of levels. Forager bees communicate info about the source of food discovered by them. This is done via a round dance (=food) and a waggle dance (=distance) Regularly face situations where communication is critical for survival.
