human language

Examples of human language in the following topics:

• Symbols and Nature

  • Language as a whole, therefore, is the human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication.
  • Human language is thought to be fundamentally different from and of much higher complexity than the communication systems of other species ().
  • Human language differs from communication used by animals () because the symbols and grammatical rules of any particular language are largely arbitrary, meaning that the system can only be acquired through social interaction. ()
  • Parrots mimic the sounds of human language, but have they really learned the symbolic system?
  • Animal sounds, like a dog's bark, may serve basic communication functions, but they lack the symbolic elements of human language.

• Language

  • Language may refer either to the human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such.
  • Yet another definition sees language as a system of communication that enables humans to cooperate.
  • Humans use language as a way of signalling identity with one cultural group and difference from others.
  • Human languages are usually referred to as natural languages, and the science of studying them falls under the purview of linguistics.
  • Human language is unique in comparison to other forms of communication, such as those used by animals, because it allows humans to produce an infinite set of utterances from a finite set of elements.

• The Origins of Language

  • The origin of language in the human species is a widely discussed topic.
  • The opposite viewpoint is that language is such a unique human trait that it cannot be compared to anything found among non-humans and that it must therefore have appeared fairly suddenly in the transition from pre-hominids to early man.
  • Currently the only prominent proponent of a discontinuity theory of human language origins is Noam Chomsky.
  • Alternatively early human fossils can be inspected to look for traces of physical adaptation to language use or for traces of pre-linguistic forms of symbolic behaviour.
  • The origin of language in the human species is a widely discussed topic.

• Feral Children

  • A feral child is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age.
  • A feral child is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no (or little) experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language.
  • They often seem mentally impaired and have almost insurmountable trouble learning human language.
  • The impaired ability to learn language after having been isolated for so many years is often attributed to the existence of a critical period for language learning at an early age, and is taken as evidence in favor of the critical period hypothesis.
  • It is theorized that if language is not developed, at least to a degree, during this critical period, a child can never reach his or her full language potential.

• The Origins of Culture

  • Culture allows humans to more quickly adapt.
  • The origin of language, understood as the human capacity of complex symbolic communication, and the origin of complex culture are often thought to stem from the same evolutionary process in early man.
  • Dunbar has proposed that language evolved as early humans began to live in large communities that required the use of complex communication to maintain social coherence.
  • Language and culture then both emerged as a means of using symbols to construct social identity and maintain coherence within a social group too large to rely exclusively on pre-human ways of building community (for example, grooming).
  • Humans use language as a way of signalling identity with one cultural group and difference from others.

• Applied Body Language

  • Body language is a form of human non-verbal communication, which consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements.
  • Humans send and interpret such signals almost entirely subconsciously.
  • Note the significant attention paid to body language.
  • Does it have anything to do with her body language?
  • Discuss the importance of body language as a means of social communication and give specific examples of body language

• Gestures

  • Gestures allow individuals to communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts, from contempt and hostility to approval and affection, often together with body language in addition to spoken words.
  • Gestural languages such as American Sign Language and its regional siblings operate as complete natural languages that are gestural .
  • Many animals, including humans, use gestures to initiate a mating ritual.
  • Gestures play a major role in many aspects of human life.
  • American Sign Language, or ASL, is a gestural language.

• Language and Perception

  • Various theories assume that language fundamentally shapes our perception.
  • This position often sees the human mind as mostly a biological construction, so that all humans sharing the same neurological configuration can be expected to have similar or identical basic cognitive patterns.
  • The idealist view holds that the human mental capacities are generally unrestricted by their biological-material basis.
  • Cognition and Communication Research Centre film describing recent research on the mapping between language and perception, and whether the language one speaks affects how one thinks.
  • The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis suggests that language shapes the way we see the world.

• Cultural Universals

  • A cultural universal is an element, pattern, trait, or institution that is common to all human cultures worldwide.
  • Taken together, the whole body of cultural universals is known as the human condition.
  • Cultural universals are elements, patterns, traits, or institutions that are common to all human cultures worldwide.
  • The idea of cultural universals—that specific aspects of culture are common to all human cultures—runs contrary to cultural relativism.
  • For example, Boas called attention to the idea that language is a means of categorizing experiences, hypothesizing that the existence of different languages suggests that people categorize, and thus experience, language differently.

• Race and Ethnicity

  • A race is a human population that is believed to be distinct in some way from other humans based on real or imagined physical differences.
  • Racial classifications are rooted in the idea of biological classification of humans according to morphological features such as skin color or facial characteristics.
  • Conceptions of race, as well as specific racial groupings, are often controversial due to their impact on social identity and how those identities influence someone's position in social hierarchies (see identity politics).Ethnicity, while related to race, refers not to physical characteristics but social traits that are shared by a human population.