PSYC 100 Study Guide - Animal Language, Waggle Dance, Nicaraguan Sign Language
salmonllama211 and 39398 others unlocked
65
PSYC 100 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
65 documents
Document Summary
Identify the three key properties of human language. Language is a method for communication information, including ideas, thoughts and emotions: semanticity: the extent to which a form of communication can meaningfully represent ideas, events and objects symbolically (using language to transmit meaningful messages) For example: a bee doing a waggle dance portrays a low level of semanticity because of the limited amount of symbols and only conveys distance and direction information. The bee can"t indicate more varied or complex messages: generativity: language combines a limited number of words and a few rules to convey many ideas. For instance, the boy hit the ball and the ball hit the boy contain the same number of words, but have different meanings. To be considered language, a form of communication must contain the property of generativity: displacement: the ability to convey messages that are not tied to the immediate time and place.