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Philosophy In A New Key By Susan Langer

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There is no other natural type of communication quite like the system of human language. It consists of vocal sounds, written symbols, signs, and gestures. Human beings use these gestures, symbols, and metaphors for many different purposes such as expressing thoughts, providing information, giving instructions, and effectively negotiating amongst one another. Human language can express many things such as thoughts and feelings between two or more people and is the greatest necessity in human communications. In Philosophy in a New Key, Susan Langer writes “The development of language is the history of the gradual accumulation and elaboration of verbal symbols. By means of this phenomenon, man’s whole behavior-pattern has undergone an immense change from the simple biological scheme, and his mentality has expanded to such a degree that it is no longer comparable to the minds of animals.” Although other species are not without their own forms of communication, it is human language that is responsible for the success of the human species, in which makes human language unique to human beings. It is symbolic, intelligent and consists of writing, grammar, and abstract speech. Language is a main element that separates man from …show more content…

There are many different ways in which humans can communicate as well as animals, but it is speech that is one of the most distinguishing capabilities in which humans only possess. Speech is defined differently from language. Speech is the vocalized form of communication. It is based upon the syntactical combination of many sounds to make different words that are drawn from extremely large vocabularies. Animal communication consists of only a few distinct sounds or calls in order to communicate immediate situations for survival purposes, such as danger, hunger, and

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