ANIMAL COMMUNICATION
The transmission of information between members of other species, including transmission by means other than sound.
Studies of animal communication attempt to determine whether language can be said to be species specific– i.e. peculiar to the human race. Examples are cited of systems of communication which resemble speech: for example, the calls of vervet monkeys and the dancing of bees. Both involve displacement, the ability to refer to entities not immediately present. But both are limited in the repertoire of signals involved, and it might be suggested that they are indexical (the signal relating physically to the message) rather than symbolic. More interesting examples are the clicks used by dolphins to communicate information, and the songs of male whales, which change from year to year.
In an attempt to specify what characterises language, Hockett (1963) proposed certain design features, which are often quoted when determining to what extent any type of animal communication is speech-like. No type satisfies most of Hockett’s criteria.
A particular obstacle lies in the fact that most animals are not physically capable of producing the kind of vocalisation which occurs in language. This is not simply because their vocal apparatus is different but because the ability to vocalise depends critically on having air passages which are not given over entirely to reflex breathing movements. Most mammals have larynxes which are controlled by the brain’s motor system, whereas humans have a much greater degree of voluntary control over the sounds produced in their larynx. They can thus utter speech sounds while breathing out.
While animal communication does not seem to resemble human language, the question remains of whether animals are cognitively capable of acquiring language if they have human models. A number of researchers have attempted to teach chimpanzees, bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees) and orangutans to express themselves, using keyboards. Despite strong claims about the cognitive and linguistic abilities of the animals studied, unresolved questions remain about the extent to which they use the keys symbolically rather than indexically, and the extent to which their productions manifest an awareness of word order and structure dependency.
See also: Birdsong, Brain: human vs animal, Chimp studies, Design features, Evolution of language, Species specificity, Vocalisation
Further reading: Aitchison (1998); Deacon (1997); Dobrovolsky (1996); Pearce (1997)
