Do animals other than humans also have "languages"?

byShannon Kokoska

Now that millions of years have passed since the birth of humans, humans have come to have sophisticated civilization that living creatures never had before. One tool indispensable for human beings to develop technology is "language" that accurately conveys information from one individual to another, but "Do animals other than humans have languages?A movie that explains the question of "YouTube has been released on YouTube.

Do animals have language? - Michele Bishop


There are no animals that do not communicate.


The crab raises the scissors and searches for a mating partner by signaling "I am a healthy body".


Squid is a skin cellA pigment cellBy changing the pattern, it changes the pattern of the skin and mimics the surrounding environment ......


I intimidate the enemy.


By dancing the bee, bees tell the fellow's bee the place of mites and the amount of mice.


Animals with such excellent communication exist in nature, but do animals have "languages" in themselves?


Language has four properties.


"DISCRETENESS (separability)"


"GRAMMAR (grammar)"


"PRODUCTIVITY (productivity)"


"DISPLACEMENT (transcendence)" are four.


"Separability" refers to the property that "a language has individual sounds and words, and the language has a new meaning by combining them".


It is the same as the magnet of the alphabet affixed to the door of the refrigerator, so even if you use the same sound or word, the way of arranging will be changed, resulting in a different sentence.


"Grammar" is a rule that determines how these sounds and words line up.


"Productivity" is the ability to express innumerable expressions using language.


"Transcendence" is the ability to talk about 'events not happening in front of us' using language. For example, speaking about past, future, fictional stories, etc. is classified as a property of language "transcendence".


Does communication of animals have these characteristics of language?


For crabs and squids it is "NO".


Because there is no 'separability' in the signals used by crabs and squids, we do not combine multiple signals to produce creative information.


Also, there is no "grammar" in those signals, and we do not talk about the past or the future.


Information such as "I am a healthy body" and "I have poison" are just indicators of "present" right now.


However, there are animals with some of the nature of the language.


Dance of a bee represents the place and amount of mits depending on the position, angle, timing, movement, etc.


At this time, since the place where Mr. bee wants to convey is outside the nest, it means that we are talking about something other than "one in front of you", indicating the nature of "transcendence".


Prairie dogThe communication tools of the same have a tendency similar to the dance of a bee.


For prairie dogs living in flocks of thousands of units,CoyoteAnd hawks, badger ... ...


There are many foreign enemies like snakes in snakes.


In addition to saying "Enemy came" when they inform their friends about the attack of enemies, they tell the size, appearance and speed of the enemy ......


If the enemy is a human being, you can tell if you have clothes and guns.


Large apes such as chimpanzees and gorillas can also develop communication that has developed, and there are individuals who communicate with sign language-like gestures.


"Washo"The chimpanzee was able to master American sign language and create his own sentences.


"Here"The female gorilla said that he was able to understand more than 1000 sign language and more than 2000 spoken English speakers.


Coco was pretty about a cat named "ball", and expressing the love affair to the ball in sign language after the ball died, Coco's sign language showed "transcendence".


But even in chimpanzees and gorillas, we can not see these linguistic properties in nature. Individuals such as Washo and Coco naturally did not learn sign language, but since it was taught sign language by the human beings to the last, it became possible to use sign language.


Dolphins are also animals that communicate complexly.


Dolphins can whistle to convey name, age, place, gender, etc.


Dolphins can learn grammar to understand gestures used by researchers.


However, as with gorillas and chimpanzees, there is no grammar in communication by nature dolphins.


Though these communications have some language characteristics, they do not have all four properties such as "separability", "grammar", "productivity" and "transcendence".


Even the linguistic skills indicated by Coco and Washore are below the language ability of a human 3 yr old.


Information that animals communicate with is limited.


Honey bees talk about Mitsu.


Prairie dog is the story of the enemy.


The crab only talks about herself.


Only the language that human beings are deeply tied to "grammar" and "productivity" ...


It is singular by "separability" and "transcendence".


The human brain can produce infinite messages from the limited elements of the language.


On the contrary, you can also create new words that no one has ever talked about or understand.


We can talk about unlimited themes by language ... ...


You can create fantasy stories as well.


Of course, you can put a crimson lie.


With research to be undertaken, we should be able to know more about communication of animals.


The communication tools of animals and the language of human beings are never discontinuous and should be continuous gently connected.


In that sense, it may be said that "human beings are also animals."