Charles F. Hockett

90

Charles F. Hockett : biography

January 17, 1916 – November 3, 2000

This follows the definition of Grammar and Syntax, as given by Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary:

Grammar:

1. (a) the study of the classes of words, their inflections, and their functions and relations in the sentence (b) a study of what is to be preferred and what avoided in inflection and syntax
2. (a) the characteristic system of inflections and syntax of a language (b) a system of rules that defines the grammatical structure of a language
Syntax:

1. (a) the way in which linguistic elements (as words) are put together to form constituents (as phrases or clauses) (b) the part of grammar

Relationship between the design features and animal communication

Additionally, Dr. Stuart defends his postulation with references to famous linguist Noam Chomsky and University of New York psychologist Gary Marcus. Chomsky theorized that humans are unique in the animal world because of their ability to utilize Design Feature 5: Total Feedback, or recursive grammar. This includes being able to correct oneself and insert explanatory or even non sequitur statements into a sentence, without breaking stride, and keeping proper grammar throughout.

While there have been studies attempting to disprove Chomsky, Marcus states that, "An intriguing possibility is that the capacity to recognize recursion might be found only in species that can acquire new patterns of vocalization, for example, songbirds, humans and perhaps some cetaceans." This is in response to a by psychologist Timothy Gentner of the University of California at San Diego. Gentner’s study found that starling songbirds use recursive grammar to identify “odd” statements within a given “song.” However, the study does not necessarily debunk Chomsky’s observation because it has not yet been proven that songbirds have the semantic ability to generalize from patterns.

that symbolic thought is necessary for grammar-based speech, and thus Homo Erectus and all preceding “humans” would have been unable to comprehend modern speech. Rather, their utterances would have been halting and even quite confusing to us, today.

Hockett’s "design features" of language and other animal communication systems

The ]]: Phonetics Laboratory Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics published the following chart, detailing how Hockett’s (and Altmann’s) Design Features fit into other forms of communication, in animals:

Feature Crickets Bee Dancing Western Meadowlark Song Gibbon Calls Signing Apes Alex, A Grey Parrot Paralinguistic phenomena Human sign languages Spoken Language
Vocal-Auditory Channel Auditory, not vocal No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes
Broadcast Transmission and Directional Reception Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Rapid Fading Yes (repeating) ? Yes Yes (repeating) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Interchangeability Limited Limited ? Yes Yes Yes Largely Yes Yes Yes
Total Feedback Yes ? Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes
Specialization Yes? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes? Yes Yes
Semanticity No? Yes In Part Yes Yes Yes Yes? Yes Yes
Arbitrariness ? No If semantic, Yes Yes Largely Yes Yes In Part Largely Yes Yes
Discreteness Yes? No ? Yes Yes Yes Largely No Yes Yes
Displacement Yes, always ? No Yes No In Part Yes, often Yes, often
Productivity No Yes ? No Debatable Limited Yes Yes Yes
Traditional Transmission No? Probably not ? ? Limited Limited Yes Yes Yes
Duality of Patterning ? No ? No (Cotton-top Tamarin: Yes) Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Prevarication Yes No Yes Yes
Reflexiveness No? No Yes Yes
Learnability Yes Yes Yes Yes