3. The properties of langauge.doc

3. The properties of language vs. Informative Unique properties Displacement Arbitrariness Productivity Cultural transmission Discreteness Duality Other properties vocal-auditory channel reciprocity specialization non-directionality rapid fade versus Informative In order to describe those properties, we should first distinguish what are municative signals from those which may be unintentionally informative signals. Informative -A person listening to you may e informed about you via a number of signals which have not intentionally sent. She may note that you have a cold (you sneezed), that you aren ’t ease (you shifted around in your seat), that you are untidy (unbrushed hair, rumpled clothing), that you are anized (non-matching socks), and that you are from some other part of the country (you have a strange accent). Communicative - However when you use language to tell this person, “I would like to apply for the vacant position of senior brain surgeon at the hospital, ” you are normally considered to be municating something. ? By the same token, the blackbird is not normally taken to municating anything by having black feathers, perching ona branch and eating a worm, but is considered to be sending municative signal with the loud squawking to be heard when a cat appears on the scene. ? When we consider the distinctions between human language an