How Human Communication Is Different From Animal Communication

Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy (1729–1767) points considering she wants everyone to notice her pet.

A hallmark of homo beings is the ability to use language. No other species of brute has linguistic communication, although other species are capable of understanding and communicating quite a few things. Notwithstanding (non-human) animate being communications cannot properly be called language. A closer look at human language and animal communication, and at the function language serves for the states reveals of import things about the human being mind and about what information technology is to be human.

Both animals and humans apply signs. A sign points to something other than itself. For example, when y'all signal with your finger at a tree, yous are making a sign. You want people to await at the tree, not at your finger. A lion'south roar (to scare off an intruder) is also a sign. It's a alert sign for the intruder, non just noise the animal happens to be making. A bird'south song to attract a mate or establish territory is a sign in the same way. So is a written or spoken discussion. Both animals and humans use signs.

At that place are (for our purposes) two kinds of signs—signals and designators. A signal is a concrete sign that has a concrete relationship with the object information technology signifies. Pointing at a tree is a betoken (direction). Making a noise to ward off an intruder is a indicate (warning). Information technology is the concreteness that characterizes the advice equally a signal. A bespeak points to or represents, in a physical way, what it signifies. That tin include aiming (with a gesture) and implying (past a frightening noise). Other signals might include imitation (for example, saying "meow" to a true cat, to indicate friendliness by sounding similar a true cat). Both animals and humans use signals. A mitt or hand movement, a grunt, a shout or a roar, are all signals. Signals tin exist quite complex—consider the complex songs of birds or the dance of insects in a hive.

A designator, however, is a kind of sign that differs in a very important way from a point. A designator points to an object, merely information technology does so abstractly, not concretely. The spoken or written word "cat" has nothing physically to do with a cat. Unlike a gesture (pointing to a cat) or making the audio "meow", the messages C-A-T characteristic cypher that concretely links the word to the animal. Y'all but know what "cat" designates if you understand the word equally used in English. By contrast, you could understand a bespeak like pointing to a cat or saying "meow" even if you spoke no English. Designators differ from signals in that they point to objects—things or concepts—abstractly.

Language is the systematic use of designators—the rule-based use of abstruse signs. That is why a lion'southward roar, an ape's gesture, or a bird's song are not really language. They are signals. A signal is not rule-based (signals take no grammar) and signals are concrete, non abstruse.

Only humans have language because only humans are capable of rule-based abstract signing. Animals can often utilize complex signals simply no animal uses rule-based designators. Animals that can be trained to communicate using "language" (such as parrots or apes) are using words as signals, not as designators. For example, yous can railroad train your domestic dog to become fetch the leash when you say "Do you want to go for a walk?" because he has learned to fetch the leash in response to those sounds, which he hears every bit a bespeak. He does not empathise them as a grammatical construction and volition certainly not get on to hash out the weather forecast with you. His communication is concrete, non abstract.

This raises a fascinating question: What is the purpose of language? Why does man, and no other animal, use language in addition to signals? Every bit linguist Noam Chomsky has pointed out, the purpose of language is non essentially to communicate. Signals work well for communication. Language permits more complex advice nether some circumstances simply some signals are quite complex and serve to facilitate advice quite well. Sign linguistic communication, which is mostly a system of signals, is a quite effective means of advice, fifty-fifty of conveying abstractions, but it is not (except when it signs the alphabet) linguistic communication. It is derived from language.

The purpose of language is not primarily to communicate. The purpose of linguistic communication is to enable man to think in a human manner. Man solitary is capable of abstract thought—idea about concepts that are universals, and non particular things. Man thinks about justice, and about mercy, about politics and imaginary numbers, and most countless concepts that are non particular physical things. This is abstract thought, and only humans retrieve abstractly.

Animals are express to idea most particulars. Dogs call back nearly the food in their bowl. Humans recollect about diet. Dogs call back about the good feeling they become when they are petted. Humans think about joy and dear in an abstract sense. Both humans and animals have the capacity to think about particulars. Only humans also accept the capacity to think about abstract concepts.

Every thought is about something. All thought is intentional, in the technical philosophical sense that it points to something. Thoughts almost particular things—physical objects in the environs, imagination, or memory—are akin to signals.

But humans cannot remember abstractly using signals. A signal points to a physical thing—a physical (or imagined or remembered) object. An abstruse concept, such as mercy or justice, is not a physical matter. In order to remember abstractly, we must use abstract signs—designators—to betoken to the conceptual objects of our thoughts. Consider: How could we contemplate mercy if we did not have the word "mercy," if our thoughts were restricted to concrete objects (akin to signals)? We could imagine situations, persons, or objects that might be associated with mercy but we couldn't contemplate mercy itself unless nosotros had a word for it. Mercy isn't a physical thing nosotros can point to.

Language, which is the rule-based use of abstruse designators, is essential for abstract thought because only designators can point to things that have no concrete physical beingness. Only human beings think abstractly, and language is what makes abstract thought possible.

Note: Considerable publicity attends claims that groovy apes, kept as research subjects, have learned human linguistic communication mastery, via American Sign Language for the Deafened. Only the skepticism surrounding these stories is well justified according to observers such as Molly Roberts, "We wanted to believe in Koko, and so we did" (Chicago Tribune June 25, 2018) and Jane C. Hu, "What Do Talking Apes Really Tell Us?" (Slate, August xx, 2014). According to those who are not associated with the projects, human needs and expectations strongly colored interpretations of the interactions.

Michael Egnor is a neurosurgeon, professor of Neurological Surgery and Pediatrics and Managing director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Neurological Surgery, Stonybrook School of Medicine

Also: past Michael Egnor: Does Brain Stimulation Enquiry Challenge Free Will? If we can be forced to want something, is the will notwithstanding free?

and

Is complimentary will a dangerous myth?

Source: https://mindmatters.ai/2018/12/how-is-human-language-different-from-animal-signals/#:~:text=Only%20humans%20have%20language%20because,as%20signals%2C%20not%20as%20designators.

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