Properties of Human Language

A mouse squeaks when it is hungry, it squeaks the same sound when it is threatened, and it still produces the same squeak when it is dying.

• Reflexivity

• Displacement

• Duality

• Productivity

Do you know Sacha Stevenson, that famous YouTuber? She speaks Bahasa Indonesia well because she has been living in Indonesia for quite a long time.

• Productivity

• Displacement

• Cultural Transmission

• Duality

I know and can describe what a noun is in front of my friends in English.

• Reflexivity

• Displacement

• Productivity

• Duality

I know that ‘amen’, ‘mean’, ‘name’, and ‘mane’ are different words with different meanings although they use the same letters: a-m-e-n.

• Reflexivity

• Displacement

• Arbitrariness

• Duality

My friend, Ketut, was born in Sydney to Balinese parents. He is fluent in English, but he knows no Balinese words!

• Cultural Transmission

• Displacement

• Arbitrariness

• Productivity

Shakespeare invented many new words! Thanks to him, now we have ‘eyeball,’ ‘assassination’, ‘addiction’, ‘accused’, ‘bedazzled,’ and many others.

• Cultural Transmission

• Reflexivity

• Arbitrariness

• Productivity

The microscopic thing causing the pandemic is a virus, but I don’t know why it is called a virus. Well, I've heard of a scientist who once named it a virus.

• Displacement

• Reflexivity

• Arbitrariness

• Duality

We used to have PSBB, or Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar, and now the government use PPKM, or Pemberlakuan Pembatasan Kegiatan Masyarakat.

• Displacement

• Reflexivity

• Cultural Transmision

• Productivity

Well, I’m looking at the texts on my phone screen.

But, wait, why is it called a screen, not a mirror, or a wzxygwj?

• Displacement

• Reflexivity

• Arbitrariness

• Duality

Many people talk about the concept of a flat earth, and they do believe in its existence although they might have never seen it from the space.

• Displacement

• Productivity

• Cultural Transmission

• Duality