Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9162 total)
2 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,817 Year: 3,074/9,624 Month: 919/1,588 Week: 102/223 Day: 0/13 Hour: 0/0


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   Science and Speech in Determining "Human" Kind
Quetzal
Member (Idle past 5872 days)
Posts: 3228
Joined: 01-09-2002


Message 232 of 268 (427666)
10-12-2007 11:16 AM
Reply to: Message 228 by bernerbits
10-12-2007 10:31 AM


Speech and communication
Hey BB,
Glad a linguistics specialist joined the conversation. Could you perhaps explain to me the difference between "speech" and "communication"? I was always under the (quite possibly erroneus) impression that speech was simply one form of communcation. Lots of organisms, as has been repeatedly pointed out on this thread, can communicate with their conspecifics, but only a tiny handful have the ability to communicate using something that could justifiably represent "speech" (humans of course, dolphins probably, a few specially trained gorillas or chimps, etc). Or am I completely off-base here?
PS: Welcome to the forum.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 228 by bernerbits, posted 10-12-2007 10:31 AM bernerbits has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 234 by bernerbits, posted 10-12-2007 11:24 AM Quetzal has replied

  
Quetzal
Member (Idle past 5872 days)
Posts: 3228
Joined: 01-09-2002


Message 241 of 268 (428039)
10-14-2007 9:52 AM
Reply to: Message 234 by bernerbits
10-12-2007 11:24 AM


Re: Speech and communication
Hi BB,
Thanks for your reply.
Linguistics students and professionals prefer to use "natural language" to describe human communication...
Okay. Is the concept of "natural language" limited to human communcation (that sounds like what you are indicating)? If so, does this actually (shudder) validate IAJ's inane argument that speech (i.e., natural language) is somehow uniquely human? If that's the case, is the concept of natural language simply a distinction-of-convenience that merely allows linguists and others of that ilk to study human communication as though it were (arbitrarily) divorced from all other forms of communication, or does it mean that linguists actually consider that there is a fundamental difference in what humans do?
Inquiring minds, and all that...

This message is a reply to:
 Message 234 by bernerbits, posted 10-12-2007 11:24 AM bernerbits has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 242 by bernerbits, posted 10-14-2007 10:25 AM Quetzal has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024