A Classic in the Field

I thought I would re-read a classic article titled “The Origin of Speech” byCharles Hockett and published in theScientific American’s September 1960 issue, to see what has changed and what survived of the old way of thinking. Much has changed. Hockett was part of the age when behaviorism dominated psychology, when the difference between animal communication and language was still hard to define, and when evolutionary explanat ions tended to focus on the benefit to the species as a whole.Yet the article is still worth learning from because it is based on what Hockett called the “design features” of language. His list of 13 features is still good, although some people might ask so what. The biggest change, perhaps, is that the list is no longer taken as much of a guide to the origins of speech.Hockett said some of the features were common to most or perhaps even all land mammals: (1) use of the vocal-auditory channel; (2) rapid fading of signal; (3) total feedback (i.e., signal sender is aware of the signal, compared with say a fish that cannot see its own signaling body markings); (4) interchangeability (signaler and receiver can change places); (5) broadcast transmission and directional reception (signal travels in all directions but receiver can tell where the signal comes from).Then come some features that are perhaps limited to primates: (1) semanticity (signal means something, i.e. danger); (2) arbitrariness (meaning not implicit in signal itself); (3) specializ...
Source: Babel's Dawn - Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Source Type: blogs