A Basic Course in Anthropological Linguistics (Studies in Linguistic ...

THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE 45
a remarkable communication system, it is still vastly different from language,
as Hockett showed by comparing the two as follows:
Feature Bee Dancing Language
Auditory-vocal channel
Broadcast transmission and
directional reception
Rapid fading
Interchangeability
Total feedback
Specialization
Semanticity
Arbitrariness
Discreteness
Displacement
Productivity
Traditional transmission
Duality of patterning
no
Yes
?
limited
?
9
Yes
no
no
Yes
Yes
probably not
no
Although many more features apply to the communicative behaviors
observed in primates who have been taught a version of human language, in
no primate other than the human one do all these operate in tandem. The
primate experiments have revealed, nevertheless, a series of truly fascinating
and important things: (1) human language is unique; (2) nevertheless, aspects
of language can be imparted to primates, who have shown many of the
intellectual and emotional qualities that were once thought to be exclusively
human; (3) as models of early language in the human species, primate speech
behaviors are indeed fascinating in themselves; and (4) there is an awful lot we
do not know both about ourselves and about animals.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The question of language origins is a fascinating one on many counts. Using
mainly reconstruction concepts such as core vocabularies, sound symbolism,