This document compares human language and animal communication. It summarizes that while animals can convey basic messages through signs, human language is far more advanced, with features like semantics, pragmatics, cultural transmission, arbitrariness, and productivity. It analyzes cases of honeybee dances, bird imitation, and dog commands. The key differences are that human language has a creative open-ended grammar allowing unlimited messages, while animal communication consists of limited, innate responses that change slowly through evolution.

1. A presentation on
Human Language vs Animal
Communication

2. Presented by:
Mostafijur Rahman Shuvo
Department of English and Humanities
University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)

3. What is Human Language?
o Human language consists of a lexicon and a
grammar.
o Design features of human language:
Semanticity
Pragmatic function
Interchangeability
Cultural transmission
Arbitrariness
Discreteness
Displacement
Productivity

4. Animal Language
o Animals can convey various message to each
other, such as:
feelings (anger, fear)
warnings
desire/willingness to mate
location of food sources
Nonetheless, animals lack anything like human
language.

5. Honeybee Dance
o Dance to communicate
o Dance communicates direction and distance
to food source
o Not entirely arbitrary

6. Question
How does the dance indicate direction?
How does the dance indicate distance?

7. Birds case
o Some birds can imitate human speech. Is this
language?
cannot learn structure
cannot create novel utterances
imitate sounds regardless of source

8. Dogs Case
o Dogs learn to understand certain commands.
o Most famous dog (concerning language) is
Chaser
learned more than 1,000 nouns (for toys)
performs basic actions in response to
commands consisting of
a verb (paw, nose, take) and a noun
demonstrated power of deduction when
asked to find novel object

9. Comparison of Human Language and
Animal Communication
o Similarity: Both are composed of SIGNS (forms with meaning)
o Six Key Differences:
 Animal: The signs of animal systems are inborn.
 Human: The capacity to be creative with signs is inborn, but the
signs (words) themselves are acquired culturally.
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 Animal: Communication is set responses to stimuli (indexes).
 Human: Not limited to use as an index.
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 Animal: Each sign has one and only one function; each meaning can
be expressed only in one way
 Human: Signs often have multiple functions; one meaning can be
expresses in many ways

10.  Animal: Not naturally used in novel way
 Human: Creative, can be adapted to new situation
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 Animal: Closed inventory of signs; only a set number of
different messages can be sent
 Human: Open ended. Grammar (rules of syntax) allows a
virtually unlimited number of messages to be constructed
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 Animal: Change extremely slowly, with the speed of
genetic evolution.
 Human: Change rapidly as a cultural phenomenon.

11. Summary
o What can animals do?
Some can learn hundreds of signs.
Some can associate meaning with sign.
Some show understanding of simple, novel
combinations.
o But...
Most animals merely exhibit stimulus-response
behavior.
Ability to learn structure is lacking.
Novel utterances are rare.