Human Language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Human Language - Essay Example However, this physicality poses a greater risk ÃŽ ¿f choking as food passes directly across the trachea. Other animals do not have this anatomy so therefore physically cannot speak. Evolutionary psychologists argue that for this to have evolved into humans over millions of ÃŽ ¿f years the advantages must far outweigh the potential hazards. They maintain that human language originated for a specific reason. The majority ÃŽ ¿f time spent by our early ancestors would be foraging for food in a hostile environment, with little time for establishing bonds with their present groups. Primates communicate within groups by grooming, but obviously, this is time-consuming and can only be done on an individual basis. Dunbar comments, "What language seems to do is allow you to overcome that barrier and use what time you have in a much more efficient way." Language allows humans to talk to several people at the same time. You can talk whilst doing other tasks and this enables humans to reach many m ore individuals, increasing the amount ÃŽ ¿f people you are communicating with. Physicalities aside, Aitchison defines human language as having four unique factors; semanticity - in that the words or other units must have a meaning; displacement - where language can be used whether the object in question is present or not; structure dependence - given that the order ÃŽ ¿f the words must make grammatical sense and creativity - probably the most human quality ÃŽ ¿f all, as there are in essence.... Other animals do not have this anatomy so therefore physically cannot speak. Evolutionary psychologists argue that for this to have evolved in humans over millions f years the advantages must far outweigh the potential hazards. They maintain that human language originated for a specific reason. The majority f time spent by our early ancestors would be foraging for food in a hostile environment, with little time for establishing bonds with their present groups. Primates communicate within groups by grooming, but obviously this is time consuming and can only be done on an individual basis. Dunbar (1993, p. 89) comments, "What language seems to do is allow you to overcome that barrier and use what time you have in a much more efficient way." Language allows humans to talk to several people at the same time. You can talk whilst doing other tasks and this enables humans to reach many more individuals, increasing the amount f people you are communicating with. Physicalities aside, Aitchison (1983) defines human language as having four unique factors; semancity - in that the words or other units must have a meaning; displacement - where language can be used whether the object in question is present or not; structure dependence - given that the order f the words (syntax) must make grammatical sense and creativity - probably the most human quality f all, as there are in essence, a never-ending number f different expressions that can be communicated. Humans use particular tools when communicating. They attempt to recognise and allocate words to certain meanings, then identify the grammatical placement f the word in a sentence, and finally refer back to a wider textual context, using previous knowledge to