cultural transmission

A suggested defining property of human LANGUAGE (contrasting with the properties of many other SEMIOTIC systems), whereby the ability to speak a language is transmitted from generation to generation by a process of learning, and not genetically. This is not to deny that children may be born with certain INNATE predispositions towards language, but it is to emphasize the difference between human language, where environmental learning has such a large role to play, and animal systems of communication, where instinct is more important.