How does human language differ from other communication systems?
• It is (at least in part) learned. This is true of all levels of language. Thus quite different languages are used by a single species, and languages change over (historical) time. • It is characterized by at least two distinct formal levels, phonology and morphosyntax, each with its own units and regularity. • New utterances may be created by recombining familiar words, and the number of possible utterances is apparently infinite. Thus the human language capacity includes the ability to comprehend and produce novel utterances. Human language is productive and systematic. • Utterances can be “about” objects and situations which are not “there” at the time of the utterance. In fact utterances can be about imaginary, even impossible situations.
