Question:
1. A wolf is able to express subtle gradations of emotion by different positions of the ears, the lips, and the tail. There are eleven postures of the tail that express such emotions as self-confidence, confidence threat, lack of tension, uncertain threat, depression, defensiveness, active submission, and complete submission. This system seems to be complex. Suppose that there were a thousand different emotions that the wolf could express in this way. Why would we claim this as non language communication?
Answer:
As we know, language is a very complex form of communication that happens among the human race.
Language consists of verbal and non-verbal conventions so that humans can express their ideas and wants. Humans utilizes words when talking in order to express their needs and wants and also they cry, slouch, and make faces when they want to express their feelings. It is different with the animals.
Researcher says that animals do not have a true language like human. For example a wolf, indeed, a wolf shows a sign of communication through his part of the body such as ear, lips, and tail. Through his tail, a wolf can express different emotions such as self-confidence, confident threat, lack of tension, uncertain threat, depression, defensiveness, active submission, and complete submission but a wolf do communicate through his gestures and these are not like the formed words that we see in the human language. Moreover, we can see from human children. They show there same forms of communication as babies when crying and gesturing but there is a change because they slowly learn the words of language and utilize this as form of communication.
In addition, according to Edward Vajda, there are some forms of signal that animals have, for example visual, auditory, and olfactory but each animal system differs entirely from all human languages in six ways. These ways are as follows:
The signs of animal systems are inborn. A wolf and other animals naturally and instinctively develop their species’ signals, even if they are raised in captivity and away from adults of their own species. This is very different with humans because they must acquire language through exposure to a speech community/ For example, An Arabian child who is adopted and raised in America will not spontaneously develop Arabic words or sentences in an all-English speaking environment or naturally develop a degraded form of Arabic. That is why, the words of human languages are definitely not inborn.
Animal systems are set responses to stimuli. Animal communication is utilized to express something more or less immediately present in space and time. It can be highlighted that the signs of animal communication are used as indexes. They cannot communicate about yesterday, about what might be, or what wan not.
Humans cannot only talk about things that are absent but also about things that have never been. They can invent myths and also tell lies. Human language can be utilized arbitrarily, with the stimulus deep within the speaker’s psyche and the topic which is not present or even non-existent while animal languages can only be utilized as a means of pointing out to something directly present in time and space.
In animal systems, each signal has one and only one function. This means that more than one sign cannot share the same meaning while the signs in human language usually have more than one meaning and each meaning can be expressed by more than one sign. For example the word “eye”.
Animal signals are not naturally utilized in novel ways. That is why animal systems are essentially non creative while human language is creative and also can be used in novel ways. Moreover, unlike the animals, humans can lie, they can use language to distort or extend the world around them. Animal communication is based on a limited inventory of signs. If we learn the set of signals and the meanings then we can know the system completely because there is no creativity for extending it further. In contrast, if we learn the entire set of words in any human language, we would still not know the language.
Animal systems are closed inventories of signs used to express a few specific messages only. This is different with human language.
Human language is unlimited in its expressive capacity. Besides human language contains word symbols, human language is based a system of patterns, or rules which is known as grammar. Grammar can be defined as patterns with function but no specific meaning such as phonology, morphology, and syntax. Grammar allows language signs to be used with virtually endless creatively while animal system is limited to a strictly defined. There is never anything new because there is no abstract level which is similar to human grammar.
Animal system seems bit to change from generation to generation.
Actually they change extremely slowly, over periods of many thousands of years, but it is as a result of genetic drift rather than conscious innovation. While human language is very changeable. Human language often changes quickly from generation to generation.
Next, Jose (2015) says that there are some differences between animal communication and human language. The explanation can bee seen as follows:
1. Duality of Pattering
Other animals do not communicate by arranging arbitrary sounds, which limits the number of messages they can create.
Distinctive sounds, called phonemes, are arbitrary and have no meaning. But humans can string these sounds in an infinite number of ways to create meaning via words and sentences.
2. Creativity
Animals have to evolve in order for their signs to change.
New words can be invented easily.
3. Displacement
Animal communication is context driven. They react to stimuli, or indexes.
Humans can talk about remote, abstract, or imaginary things that are not happening in their immediate environments.
4. Interchangeability
Certain animal communications in the animal world can only be utilized by one gender of that animal.
Any gender of human can utilize the same languages.
5. Cultural Transmission
They way that animals communicate are biological or inborn.
Humans acquire language culturally. Words must be learned.
6. Arbitrariness
Animal communication is not symbolic, so it cannot preserve ideas of the past.
Human language is symbolic, using a set number of sounds (phonemes) and characters (alphabet), which allows ideas to be recorded and preserved.
7. Biology
Other animals have different biological structures, which impact the way they make sounds.
On a purely biological level. The human voice box and tongue are very unique, and are required to make the sounds we recognize as language.
8. Ambiguity
Every sign has only one meaning.
A word or sign can have several meanings.
9. Variety
Animals only have a limited number of combinations they can use to communicate.
Human language can arrange words into an infinite number of ideas, sometimes referred to as discrete infinity.
From the explanation above, it can be concluded that animal communication including a wolf communication is claimed as non language communication
References:
Jose, Johnson M. 2015. The Difference between Animal and Human Communication. 22
September 2019. Accessed from https://owlcation.com/stem/The-difference-between
animal-and-huma-communication.
Edward Vajda. Animal Systems of Communication. 22 September 2019. Accessed from
http://pandora.cii.wwwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test1materials/animal_commmunication.htm
Voxy. 2012. Do Animals Have a Langauge. 22 September 2019. Accessed from
https://voxy.com/blog/2012/04/do-animals-have-a-language/
Post a Comment