A world crew proposes changing Hockett’s function guidelines with a mannequin of language as a dynamic, multimodal, and socially evolving system.
For greater than sixty years, Charles Hockett’s ‘design options’ have been broadly used as a framework for outlining what distinguishes human language from different types of communication. These options had been lengthy handled as a guidelines of properties that set language aside.
Nevertheless, a brand new examine printed in Tendencies in Cognitive Sciences argues that this conventional view is now not ample. The researchers contend that language can’t be captured by a hard and fast stock of traits, however is healthier understood as a versatile system formed by social interplay, situational context, and human creativity.
Paradigm shift for language science
In a brand new reassessment of Hockett’s basic “design options” of language—concepts akin to arbitrariness, duality of patterning, and displacement—a global crew of linguists and cognitive scientists argues that present analysis requires a basic rethink of what language is and the way it advanced.
Their central declare is evident: language will not be merely a spoken code. As an alternative, it’s a dynamic, multimodal, socially grounded system formed by means of interplay, tradition, and shared that means.
Updating Hockett
Over the past a number of many years, scientific discoveries have dramatically expanded our understanding of communication. Language is now not seen as one thing confined to speech. Signal languages utilized by deaf communities are totally developed linguistic programs, and tactile programs akin to Protactile—utilized by DeafBlind signers within the northwest USA—reveal that language may also be conveyed by means of contact.
Analysis has additionally reshaped views of animal communication. Dolphins use distinctive signature whistles, birds produce songs with syntax-like group, and apes talk deliberately by means of context-sensitive gestures. On the identical time, the emergence of generative AI has raised new questions on whether or not language is restricted to organic minds in any respect.
“This isn’t about discarding Hockett,” says Dr. Michael Pleyer, lead creator and researcher at Nicolaus Copernicus College in Toruń. “It’s about updating him. His framework was revolutionary in 1960 – however science has moved on. At this time, we see that options as soon as thought uniquely human—like productiveness (the power to create an infinite variety of sentences), displacement (the power to speak about issues not within the right here and now), and even recursive construction (the power to embed sentences inside sentences)—are additionally discovered to some extent in animal communication. The true story isn’t about what separates us from different species. It’s about how language, in all its complexity, connects us.”
The interdisciplinary team Pleyer, Perlman, Lupyan, de Reus, and Raviv (2025) proposes a new direction for language science. Rather than treating language as a checklist of defining traits, they describe it as a living, adaptive system shaped by multimodality, social interaction, and cultural evolution.
Beyond the List: A New Vision of Language
The researchers highlight three major developments that are reshaping linguistic theory and moving it beyond a static feature list.
1. Multimodality and semiotic diversity
Language is not restricted to spoken words. Signed languages function on equal footing with spoken languages, and gestures and facial expressions are integral to everyday communication rather than secondary additions. Furthermore, language is not purely arbitrary.
Iconicity—where form resembles meaning—plays an essential role. Examples include imitative gestures, sound-symbolic words such as ‘buzz’ and ‘crash’, a stretched pronunciation like ‘slooooow’, and even emoji in digital text. This flexibility allows humans to transform almost any behavior into a communicative signal.
2. Language as social and functional
Communication is not simply the transfer of coded information. It involves people building shared meaning within specific contexts. A phrase such as ‘Isn’t that Tom’s bike?’ might signal ‘Let’s meet here’ or ‘Let’s avoid this place,’ depending on shared history and relationships.
Language also conveys identity, sometimes unintentionally, through features such as accent or dialect. It can foster solidarity or create distance. At the same time, language influences cognition; for instance, acquiring a new color term can sharpen a person’s ability to distinguish shades.
3. Language as an adaptive, evolving system
Key properties of language, including productivity and compositional structure, do not simply exist in isolation. They emerge through repeated social interaction and cultural transmission across different timescales, from moment-to-moment exchanges to changes unfolding across generations.
Languages adapt to their social environments, and variations in community structure contribute to the remarkable diversity seen across the world’s languages.
Societal relevance
These insights arrive at a time of major change. Sign languages are increasingly recognized as fully complex languages equal to spoken ones. Animal communication research continues to reveal structured signaling systems involving context, intention, and innovation across birds, dolphins, primates, and even insects. Meanwhile, generative AI systems challenge assumptions about who or what can produce language.
Co-author Dr. Marcus Perlman from the University of Birmingham explains, “The last few decades have been an exciting time for linguistics, especially for those of us interested in the origins of human language. Language scientists today know about lots of stuff that was mostly obscure to scientists back then – for example, huge advances in our understanding of sign languages and now tactile signing systems, and recently, the advent of large language models like ChatGPT. It makes sense that linguistic theory would require a major update.”
The study also carries clear implications for society and education. In particular, it:
- Questions traditional textbook accounts that reduce language to spoken words.
- Recognizes sign languages and non-speech forms of communication as fully legitimate linguistic systems, supporting greater inclusion and equity.
- Provides teachers and educators with an updated framework for discussing language evolution, communication, and cognition in the classroom.
“Language is not a static thing,” adds senior author Dr. Limor Raviv from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. “It’s a dynamic, embodied, and deeply social act, which is flexible in form, function, and evolution. When we accept that, we see not just what makes us human—but how we are in fact connected to the wider story of animal communication.”
About the study
The research draws together decades of work from linguistics, cognitive science, animal behavior, and neuroscience. It builds on prior analyses, including a 2022 study showing that Hockett’s design features continue to dominate introductory textbooks, even though growing empirical evidence suggests they no longer provide a complete account of language.
Reference: “The ‘design features’ of language revisited” by Michael Pleyer, Marcus Perlman, Gary Lupyan, Koen de Reus and Limor Raviv, 25 November 2025, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2025.10.004
M.Pl. was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland, grant number 2024/53/B/HS2/01366. G.L. was partially funded by NSF-PAC #2020969.
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