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Human Language vs. Animal Communication Systems

Argument: whether or not animal communication systems can be defined as language.
Human language qualities:
1. Human speech sounds can be arranged in infinite sequences to create new meanings. (Animals can't. They only add variety.)
  1. Human languages are arbitrary. All humans are of the same species but speak over 6,000 languages. (Animals have biologically-fixed sounds, gestures, and postures, with an innate ability to communicate with small variability.)
    1. We communicate in the abstract (e.g. past, present, future, not in immediate environment, develop concepts without physical form). (Animals are limited to reacting to the environment.)
Reason to study animal communication: We are not the only animals that communicate, and we may be able to understand something about our own system, however different, from studying systems of other species.
Naturally-occurring ACS
1. Black Austrian honeybee communication (appis mellifera carnica): Forager bees' special dance on the hives' wall to inform other bees of the food's location; quality of food, distance and direction of source denoted by 3 dances; Karl von Frisch's experiments
  1. Round Dance (5m.): moving in alternate circles
  2. Sickle Dance (5-20m.): moving in 8-shaped patterns, vertical angle to the sun reflecting angle tofood source
  3. Tail-wagging Dance (>20m.): moving in straight line, wagging her abdomen in semi-circular paths. Duration of dance = Distance of flying
  4. Bee communication systems are innate, and they require an audience for their communication efforts.
  5. Bird Songs and Calls: Communication uses vocalizations and visualizations.
    1. Bird Songs: may have an internal structure; identify bird species; gives information on identity and mated status of bird; used in courtship rituals and territory protection; important song sections and their order
    2. Bird Calls: singular or short, sequenced notes; signals to keep flock together, to indicate take-off/landing, & to sound a predator alarm; innate
    3. Dolphins & Whales: vocalizations (pure tones such as whistles & squeaks, & pulsed tones such as clicks, barks, yelps, & moans)
      1. Echolation: clicks to send out sound waves that they bounce off objects to identify them
        Whistles: to send out alarms or distress calls
      2. Prairie Dogs: Use up to 100 sounds in one alarm to describe a particular predator; create new calls/messages with specific information on predator such as shape, size & color
        Primate Communication: on feeding, protecting territory, showing dominance, attracting & keeping mates; calls, facial expressions, & gestures; Vervets (vocalizations: 22 distinct messages, 36 sounds that cannot be combined)
Artificially-taught ACS
1. Clever Hans - horse: communication as a result of cueing by trainer
  1. Chimpanzees & Great Apes: share over 95% of human DNA; their physical structure of the musculature in their vocal tract is different from humans and does not allow the same articulations; good communication with hands (good manual dexterity & imitation of movement); Allen & Beatrice Gardner's work with Washoe, a chimpanzee - creates new words with compounding; ape Kanesa's badbad on poison mushroom; need to be taught by a trainer; vary in word order; chimpanzee Nim Chimpsky on repetition
    1. African Grey Parrots: study on their mental capabilities, such as symbolic thinking; recognition and relation of numbers 1-6 in oral and written form; object permanence; reasoning ability of 5y/o on some tasks; challenge on whether they are capable of abstract thinking

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Human Language vs. Animal Communication Systems

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	Created by Pearl Barretto over 10 years ago