ANTH 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Operant Conditioning, Arbitrariness, Animal Communication
17 Sep 2018
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Natural signs like smoke (signs a fire) A set of criteria that human language has that other forms of communication don"t these characteristics shape the possibilities & constraints of language as a mode of communication. Human language need to be heard to be understood. Specialization : language apparatus is specifically for language. Compare to dog panting : cooling dog down, communicated something, serves physiological need. Semanticity : words refer to "things" in the world. As opposed to general sense, general warnings. Compare a baby"s hunger cry to an adult saying "i"d like a sandwich" Arbitrariness : relationship b/w signifier & signified is arbitrary. Makes it possible to refer to things that don"t have sounds, things that are not true/hypothetical (only resemblance such as picture would be extremely limited. Displacement : you can refer to things that are not present.
