The followings are eight of features described in what ways these features are uniquely parts of human language and unlikely to be found in the communication system of other creatures.
1. Arbitrariness
2. Displacement
3. Discreteness
4. Duality
5. productivity
6. interchangeability
7. specialization
8. cultural transmission
1. Arbitrariness
It is known that the words of a language represent a connection between a group of sounds or from and its meaning. A combination of a meaning and a form connected in this way is called as a linguistic sign. The connection between a linguistic form and its meaning refers to the fact that there is no logical connection between a form and its meaning. For example, the word ‘pen’ has nothing in logical relation with an object.
Arbitrariness is a matter of meaning conventions and conventions differ across languages. In different languages, words with the same meaning can have different from and words that have similar forms can express different meanings.
2. Displacement
Language can be used to refer to real or imagined matters in the past, present or future. Humans can refer to past and future time. This property of human language is called displacement or the ability to communicate about things, ideas, events, or persons that are not present at the time of speaking. Speakers and hearers may never have seen or experienced what they talk about but both of them can understand what is meant. Human activities would be very limited without the property of displacement.
3. Discreteness
The property of all languages is discreteness. It is the property of having complex messages that are built up out of small parts. A sentence from a human languages is composed of discrete units, independent words which are composed of smaller discrete units, individual sounds. For example, the sentence ‘Dome goes jogging every day’ is composed of five words combined together.
4. Duality
Human language is organized at two components: forms and meanings. This property is called duality. Duality of patterning permits a large number of meaningless elements that are put together in various ways. It means that a discrete number of functional units of sounds can be grouped and regrouped into an infinite number of sentences.
5. Productivity