UNEFM Ciencias de la Educación Educación en Lenguas Extranjeras mención Ingles

1. The Theme of
Differences between
human language and
animal communication
system
By
Instructor: Ahmed Abdul Wahhab

2. The Theme of Differences between human language…….

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
‫ﺃﺼﺒﺢ‬ ‫ﻟﻠﻐﺔ‬ ‫ﺍﺴﺘﺨﺩﺍﻤﻪ‬ ‫ﻓﻲ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺤﻴﻭﺍﻨﺎﺕ‬ ‫ﻋﻥ‬ ‫ﻴﺨﺘﻠﻑ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺒﺸﺭﻱ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺠﻨﺱ‬ ‫ﺃﻥ‬ ‫ﻋﻠﻰ‬ ‫ﺍﻹﺼﺭﺍﺭ‬ ‫ﺇﻥ‬
‫ﺒﺤﻭﺜﻬﻡ‬ ‫ﻓﻲ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻌﻠﻤﺎﺀ‬ ‫ﻗﺒل‬ ‫ﻤﻥ‬ ‫ﻟﻠﻨﻘﺎﺵ‬ ‫ﹰ‬
‫ﺍ‬‫ﻤﺜﻴﺭ‬ ‫ﹰ‬
‫ﺎ‬‫ﻤﻭﻀﻭﻋ‬
‫ﺍﻟﺠﻨﺱ‬ ‫ﻗﺒل‬ ‫ﻤﻥ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻠﻐﺔ‬ ‫ﺍﺴﺘﺨﺩﺍﻡ‬ ‫ﻋﻥ‬ ‫ﻭﺘﺤﻘﻴﻘﺎﺘﻬﻡ‬
‫ﺍﻟﺒﺸﺭﻱ‬
.
‫ﺍﻻﺘﺼﺎﻟﻴﺔ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺭﺴﺎﺌل‬ ‫ﻤﻥ‬ ‫ﻤﺨﺘﻠﻔﺔ‬ ‫ﺃﻨﻭﺍﻉ‬ ‫ﻭﺍﻟﺒﺒﻐﺎﺀ‬ ‫ﻭﺍﻟﺩﻻﻓﻴﻥ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻘﺭﻭﺩ‬ ‫ﻟﻘﻨﻭﺍ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺒﺎﺤﺜﻴﻥ‬ ‫ﻨﺭﻯ‬ ‫ﻟﺫﺍ‬
‫ﺒﻴﺌﺘﻪ‬ ‫ﻓﻲ‬ ‫ﻭﺴﻠﻭﻜﻪ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺤﻴﻭﺍﻥ‬ ‫ﻟﻐﺔ‬ ‫ﺩﺭﺍﺴﺔ‬ ‫ﺍﺯﺩﺍﺩﺕ‬ ‫ﺤﻴﺙ‬ ،‫ﺍﻟﺒﺸﺭﻱ‬ ‫ﻟﻠﺠﻨﺱ‬ ‫ﺍﻻﺘﺼﺎﻟﻴﺔ‬ ‫ﻟﻸﺸﻜﺎل‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻤﺸﺎﺒﻬﺔ‬
‫ﹰ‬
‫ﺍ‬‫ﻤﺅﺨﺭ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻁﺒﻴﻌﻴﺔ‬
.
‫ﻓﻲ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺒﺎﺤﺙ‬ ‫ﻫﺩﻑ‬ ‫ﻴﺘﺠﺴﺩ‬
‫ﺘﻁﻭﺭﻴﺔ‬ ‫ﻨﻅﺭ‬ ‫ﻭﺠﻬﺔ‬ ‫ﺨﻼل‬ ‫ﻤﻥ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺒﺸﺭﻱ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺠﻨﺱ‬ ‫ﻟﻐﺔ‬ ‫ﻤﻨﺎﻗﺸﺔ‬
‫ﻨﻌﺘﺒﺭ‬ ‫ﺃﻥ‬ ‫ﺨﻼﻟﻬﺎ‬ ‫ﻤﻥ‬ ‫ﻴﻤﻜﻥ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺘﻲ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻜﻴﻔﻴﺔ‬ ‫ﻭﻟﺘﻭﻀﻴﺢ‬ ،‫ﺍﻟﻌﻠﻡ‬ ‫ﻤﻴﺎﺩﻴﻥ‬ ‫ﻟﻤﺨﺘﻠﻑ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺼﺎﺭﻤﺔ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺤﺩﻭﺩ‬ ‫ﻟﻭﻀﻊ‬
‫ﻤﻥ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻤﻨﺎل‬ ‫ﺒﻌﻴﺩﺓ‬ ‫ﺘﻜﻭﻥ‬ ‫ﻗﺩ‬ ‫ﻭﺍﻟﺘﻲ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺤﻴﻭﺍﻨﻲ‬ ‫ﺍﻻﺘﺼﺎل‬ ‫ﻟﻭﺴﺎﺌل‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻤﺘﻌﺩﺩﺓ‬ ‫ﺍﻷﺸﻜﺎل‬ ‫ﺃﺤﺩ‬ ‫ﻫﻲ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻠﻐﺔ‬
‫ﺍﻷﺨﺭﻯ‬ ‫ﺍﻷﺠﻨﺎﺱ‬
.
‫ﻜﻴﻔﻴ‬ ‫ﻭﺼﻑ‬ ‫ﻓﻲ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻤﺸﻜﻠﺔ‬ ‫ﺇﻥ‬
‫ﺍﻟﺴﻠﻭﻙ‬ ‫ﻤﻥ‬ ‫ﻨﻭﻉ‬ ‫ﺃﻱ‬ ‫ﻤﻊ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺒﺸﺭﻱ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺠﻨﺱ‬ ‫ﻟﻐﺔ‬ ‫ﺍﺨﺘﻼﻑ‬ ‫ﺔ‬
‫ﻤﻌﻀﻠﺔ‬ ‫ﻤﻥ‬ ‫ﺃﺠﺯﺍﺀ‬ ‫ﻫﻲ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺒﺸﺭﻱ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺠﻨﺱ‬ ‫ﺴﺒﻘﺕ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺘﻲ‬ ‫ﺍﻷﺼﻨﺎﻑ‬ ‫ﺃﻭ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻼﺒﺸﺭﻱ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺠﻨﺱ‬ ‫ﻟﺩﻯ‬ ‫ﺍﻻﺘﺼﺎﻟﻲ‬
‫ﻤﺩﻯ‬ ‫ﻨﻌﺭﻑ‬ ‫ﺃﻥ‬ ‫ﻨﺴﺘﻁﻴﻊ‬ ‫ﻻ‬ ‫ﺫﻟﻙ‬ ‫ﺇﻨﺠﺎﺯ‬ ‫ﻴﺘﻡ‬ ‫ﻭﺤﺘﻰ‬ ‫ﺍﻷﺨﺭﻯ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺤﻴﻭﺍﻨﺎﺕ‬ ‫ﺒﺎﻗﻲ‬ ‫ﻋﻥ‬ ‫ﺍﻹﻨﺴﺎﻥ‬ ‫ﺘﻤﻴﻴﺯ‬
‫ﺍﻟﻘﺩﺭﺓ‬ ‫ﻴﻤﺘﻠﻙ‬ ‫ﺍﻹﻨﺴﺎﻥ‬ ‫ﺒﺄﻥ‬ ‫ﺍﻹﺼﺭﺍﺭ‬ ‫ﻤﻥ‬ ‫ﻨﻌﻨﻴﻪ‬ ‫ﻤﺎ‬ ‫ﻤﻘﺩﺍﺭ‬
‫ﺍﻟﻜﻼﻡ‬ ‫ﻋﻠﻰ‬
) .
،‫ﻫﻭﻜﺕ‬
١٩٧٦
‫ﺹ‬ ،
٧٥٠
.(
‫ﻫﻭﻜﺕ‬ ‫ﺠﺎﺭﻟﺱ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻠﻐﻭﻱ‬ ‫ﺃﻨﺸﺄ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺤﻴﻭﺍﻨﻴﺔ‬ ‫ﺍﻻﺘﺼﺎﻟﻴﺔ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺭﺴﺎﺌل‬ ‫ﻤﻊ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﺒﺸﺭﻴﺔ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻠﻐﺔ‬ ‫ﺘﺘﻐﺎﻴﺭ‬ ‫ﻭﻟﻜﻲ‬
)
١٩٦٧
،
‫ﺹ‬
٥٧٤
-
٥٨٠
(
‫ﺍﻟﻠﻐﺔ‬ ‫ﻟﻔﺤﺹ‬ ‫ﻋﺎﻡ‬ ‫ﻗﺒﻭل‬ ‫ﺫﺍﺕ‬ ‫ﻗﺎﺌﻤﺔ‬
.
Abstract
The assertion that humans differ from animals in their use of
language has been the subject of much discussion as scientists have
investigated language use by non-human species. Researchers have taught
apes, dolphins, and parrots various systems of humanlike communication,
and recently, the study of animal language and behaviour in, its natural
environment rather than in the laboratory has increased. It is my aim to
discuss human language within an evolutionary perspective,to step across
disciplinary boundaries of different fields of science, and to show how we
may consider language only as one of the many forms that animal
communication has taken and that it may not be out of reach of other
species.
Parts of the problem of differentiating man from the other animals
is the problem of describing how human language differs from any kind of
communicative behaviour carried on by non-human or pre-human species.

3. The Theme of Differences between human languag e…...
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Until we have done this, we cannot know how much it means to assert
that only man has the power of speech. (Hockett, 1967, p.570). In order to
contrast human language with animal communication, the linguist Charles
Hockett (1967, p. 574-580) introduces a generally accepted check list for
language.
1. Introduction
Language is an invaluable possession of the human race. Man is
clearly distinguished from other species by his capacity of using
language. Human beings have an organized form of languages. There
are innumerable languages exist around the world. Animals also
communicate in one or the other way. This communication method or
language is not organized as human language and entirely different from
human communication method, biologically and culturally.
One famous view of language is that of the influential Noam
Chomsky. He assumes that a kind of language organ within the mind is
part of the gentetic make-up of humans. A system which makes it
possible from a limited set of rules to construct an unlimited number of
sentences is not found in any other species,, and Chomsky believes that
it is an investigation of this uniqueness that is important and not the
likeness between human language and other communication systems
(Wardhaugh 1993:18-26,60- 65). Apparently, linguists should not be
concerned with this question because it is outside their field, and it is
outside their field because the linguists themselves have defined
language as uniquely human. This approach does not operate within an
evolutionary perspective and does not consider language within its
natural social context. Through ages, philosophy and religion have
established mans place in nature, and humans tend to regard nature as
the raw material they exploit and manipulate to suit their purposes, not
something they should communicate with. In any case, without having
intensively investigated any form of animal communication that may
resemble human language, e.g. combinations of words/ signs,
intonation, and body-language, within a natural social context, we
cannot claim that language is unique to the human species.
Like human beings animals also communicate with one another
through their communication systems which are called animal
languages such as language of dolphins, language of bees. Animals
have both discrete and non-discrete systems of communication but their

4. The Theme of Differences between human language…….
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messages as well as symbols are limited in quantity and dimension. On
the other hand, human languages are much more surprisingly unlimited.
The communication systems of most animals are instinctive.
They inherit them genetically. None can separate animals from their
inbuilt qualities. On the contrary, human language is non-instinctive.
Humans can acquire and learn any thing and any language as a result of
social interaction. For example, a baby and a puppy are growing up in
the same environment hearing mostly the same thing. But about two
years later the baby will make human noises while the puppy will not.
In addition, Mowgli in the Jungle Book grew up in the animal
environment and his communication systems became like animals.
Human language has got certain properties which makes it
unique and different from animal communication system. These
properties are duality, creativity, displacement, arbitrariness,
interchangeability etc.
2. Human language
Language is the most effective method of human
communication. The term language is derived from the Latin word
lingua meaning tongue. Human language is in organized form. It is
an open entity, new words or meanings may come into use.
Language is as important as breathing. Barnett says, "Verbal
communication" is a condition of the existence of human society.
Language helps man in several ways. It enables him to reach
back into collective knowledge of his ancestors. It is through language
that human beings collect and preserve knowledge and transfer it to the
next generation. Most of the linguists disclose the fact that human
language has different types of realizations such as written form, spoken
form. Human language has signifier and signified.
3. Characteristic features of human language
Human languages are characterized for having a double
articulation (in the characterization of French linguist Andre
Martinet). It means that complex linguistic expressions can be broken
down in meaningful elements (such as morphemes and words),
which in turn are composed of smallest phonetic elements that affect
meaning, called phonemes.
Animal signals, however, do not exhibit this dual structure. In
general, animal utterances are responses to external stimuli, and do
not refer to matters removed in time and space. Matters of relevance

5. The Theme of Differences between human languag e…...
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at a distance, such as distant food sources, tend to be indicated to
other individuals by body language instead, for example wolf activity
before a hunt, or the information conveyed in honeybee dance
language. It is therefore unclear to what extent utterances are
automatic responses and to what extent deliberate intent plays a part.
In contrast to human language, animal communication systems are
usually not able to express conceptual generalizations. (Cetaceans and
some primates may be notable exceptions). Human languages combine
elements to produce new messages (a property known as creativity). One
factor in this is that much human language growth is based upon
conceptual ideas and hypothetical structures, both being far greater
capabilities in humans than animals. This appears far less common in
animal communication systems, although current research into animal
culture is still an ongoing process with many new- discoveries.
Animal communication is devoid of 'novelty', 'creativity' and
'multiplicity' to produce apt utterances according^ different situations.
Most animals have limited number of messages or symbols they can send
or receive. While human language possesses the qualities.
A human being can even in a most unlikely situation utter a sentence
which has never been said before and if can still be understood.
A recent and interesting area of development is the discovery that
the use of syntax in language, and the ability to produce "sentences", is
not limited to humans either. The first good evidence of syntax in non-
humans, reported[21] in 2006, is from the greater spot-nosed monkey
(Cercopithecus nictitans) of Nigeria. This is the first evidence that some
animals can take discrete units of communication, and build them up into
a sequence which then carries a different meaning from the individual
"words". Because of its having arbitrariness, human language is
conditioned by geography- its culture, social and natural environment.
The linguistic sign of the same object may differ from one geographical
region to another. For example, what is called by the English to be 'dog' is
called 'perro' by the Spanish, 'sobaka' by the Russian and 'inee' by the
Japanese. On the other hand animal communication is not conditioned by
geography. For instance, the dogs of all countries have the same system
of message and symbols. Human language is extendable and modifiable.
The symbol or linguistic sign used in a language a hundred years ago may
be extended, changed and even may not be used any more. But animal
communication is opposite to this. For example, the bees and the

6. The Theme of Differences between human language…….
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monkeys use even now-a-days the same communication system which
they used, say, five thousand years ago.
Duality and displacement-the organization of language into two
layers, and the " ability to talk about objects and events- are extremely
rare in the animal world. No animal communication system has both
these features, (Jean Aitchison, 1995, p. 18). Humans produce sounds
by the organs of speech, a rare gift of nature. No other species except
apes and monkeys have been endowed with this gift.
4. Animal communication
Animals also can communicate. Some animals and birds like dog,
dolphins, gibbons, herring gulls and honey bees have developed their own
system of communication. But their communication system differs from
human communication. Animal communication lacks flexibility and
creativity. Their communication tradition is acquired genetically and not
through learning. Is language the exclusive property of the human species
? the idea of talking animals is as old and as widespread among human
societies as language itself, all cultures have legends in which some
animal plays a speaking role . all over west africa, children listen to
folktales in which a "spider-man" is the hero, "coyote" is a favorite figure
in many native american tales, and many an animal takes the stage in
aesop's famous fables, the fictional doctor doolittle's forte was
communicating with all manner of animals, from giant snails to tiny
sparrows.
If language is viewed only as a system of communication, then
many species communicate, humans also use systems other than
language to relate to each other and to send and receive "messages" like
so-called body language, the question is whether the communication
systems used by other species are at all like human linguistic
knowledge, which is acquired by children with no explicit instruction,
and which is used creatively rather than in response to internal or
external stimuli. The most humans who acquire language use speech
sounds to express meaning, but such sounds are not a necessary aspect
of language, as evidenced by the sign languages, the use of speech
sounds is therefore not a basic part of what we have been calling
language, the chirping of birds, the squeaking of dolphins, and the
dancing of bees may potentially represent systems similar to human
languages, if animal communication systems are not like human
language, it will not be because of a lack of speech. Conversely, when

7. The Theme of Differences between human languag e…...
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animals vocally imitate human utterances, it does not mean they possess
language, language is a system that relates sounds or gestures to
meanings, talking birds such as parrots and mynah birds are capable of
faithfully reproducing words and phrases of human language that they
have heard, but their utterances carry no meaning, they are speaking
neither English nor their own language when they sound like us.
Talking birds do not dissect the sounds of their imitations into
discrete units, polly and molly do not rhyme for a parrot, they are as
different as hello and goodbye, one property of all human languages is the
discreteness of the speech or gestural units, which are ordered and
reordered, combined and split apart, generally, a parrot says what it is
taught, or what it hears, and no more, if polly learns "polly wants a crack"
and "polly wants a doughnut" and also learns to imitate the single words
whiskey and bagel, she will not spontaneously produce, as children
do,"polly wants whiskey" or "polly wants a bagel" or "polly whiskey and
a bagel." if she learns cat and cats, and dog and dogs, and then learns the
word parrot, she will be unable to form the plural parrots as children do
by the age of three; nor can a parrot form an unlimited set of utterances
from a finite set of units, nor understand utterances it has never heard
before, reports of an African grey parrot named alex suggest that new
methods of training animals may result in more learning than was
previously believed possible, when the trainer uses words in context, alex
seems to relate some sounds with their meaning, this is more than simple
imitation, but it is not how children acquire the complexities of the
grammar of any language, it is more like a dog learning to associate
certain sounds with meanings, such as heel, sit, fetch, and so on. a recent
study in Germany reports on a nine-year-old border collie named Rico
who has acquired a 200-word vocabulary (containing both German and
english words). Rico did not require intensive training but was able to
learn many of these words quite quickly. However impressive these feats,
the ability of a parrot to produce sounds similar to those used in human
language, even if meaning are related to these sounds, and Rico's ability
to understand sequences of sounds that correspond to specific objects,
cannot be equated with the child's ability to acquire the complex grammar
of a human language.
5. Theoretical Aspect
In his book The Language Instinct, (1994) Steven Pinker
pointed out two fundamental facts about human language that were
used by linguist Noam Chomsky to develop his theory about how we

8. The Theme of Differences between human language…….
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learn language. The first is that each one of us is capable of producing
brand new sentences never before uttered in the history of the
universe, this means that:
A language cannot be a repertoire of responses;
the brain must contain a recipe or program that
can build an unlimited set of sentences out of a
finite list of words. That program may be called a
mental grammar (not to be confused with
pedagogical or stylistic "grammars." which are
just guides to the etiquette of written prose.
Certain scholars argue that our language capabilities are not
unique and point to various aspects of non-human primate
communication as evidence. Other scientists remain unconvinced.
Today there continues to be a significant amount of debate concerning
this area of linguistic anthropology.
Communication can be defined to include both signals and symbols.
Signals are sounds or gestures that have a natural or self-evident meaning
[example of someone crying (=emotion), laughing (=emotion), animal
cries (indicating fear, food, or hunt). In this regard, we can consider that
most animal communication is genetically determined and includes hoots,
grunts, or screams that are meant to mean only one thing and are used
every time in the same situation. So there is only one way to express one
thing and it never changes. Animal communication tends to consist
primarily of signals.
In contrast, human communication is dependent on both signals
and symbols. Symbols are sounds or gestures that have meaning for a
group of people-it is the cultural tradition that gives it meaning (e.g.
green light=go; teaching a child letters (see Faces of Culture video).
Symbols have to be learned and are not instinctive; the meanings are
arbitrary.
Some of the debate regarding human versus primate
communication stems from observations by scientists in the field. For
example, scientists who have observed vervet monkeys in the wild
consider at least three of their alarm calls to be symbolic because each
of them means a different kind of predator- eagles, pythons, leopards-
monkeys react differently to each call. Interestingly, infant vervets
often make the "eagle" warning call when they see any flying bird and
learn the appropriate call as they grow up. This is similar to human
infants who often first apply the word "dada" to all adult males,'

9. The Theme of Differences between human languag e…...
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gradually learning to restrict it one person. It is possible, therefore, to
consider such calls as symbolic.
So-if monkeys and apes appear to use symbols as least some of
the time, how can we distinguish human communication? For one thing,
all human languages emply a much larger set of symbols. Another and
perhaps more important difference is that other primate's vocal systems
tend to be closed (different calls are not often combined to produce new,
meaningful utterances). In contrast, human languages are open systems
(capable of sending messages that have never been sent before and the
ability to combine symbols in an infinite variety of ways for an infinite
variety of meanings). The following exercises are designed to help you
think about the similarities and differences between humans and
nonhuman primates in terms of the way we all communicate.
6. The main differences between human language and animal
communications
Human language differs from animal communication in many
ways. While humans use language to produce an infinite number of
unique sentences as a form of communication, animals lack testability.
Animals communicate by signal codes, which means they have a
limited number of statements, generally as simple responses to certain
situations. As one researcher says, . .the natural sounds and gestures
produced by all nonhuman primates show their signals to be highly
stereotyped and limited in the type and number of messages they
convey." Human language, on the other hand, is a true language - a
system of arbitrary signs which allows us to convey unlimited
interactions.
For one, human language differs because it has form and
meaning, which means it has a structure which combines sounds,
gestures, letters, and written words which when put together have a
certain significance or meaning. (Thus language has got two levels of
patterning which is not prevailed in animal communication). Secondly,
human language differs because it is creative, meaning that we can
(with language) produce (and understand) an infinite number of new
sentences which have never before been spoken; we can lie and joke
and even talk about things that don't make any sense. Thirdly, human
language differs because it has displacement, which basically means
that we as humans can talk about things in the past and future, and
things that are either right in front of us or miles away. While some

10. The Theme of Differences between human language…….
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animals, like bees, have shown signs of limited displacement, and while
certain apes have been able to acquire a number of sign language
messages, animal communication is restricted to very simple messages
like "look out" or "danger!" Animals cannot say "look out, I saw a snake
in that tree yesterday" or make jokes, lie, and talk about the imaginary
(which linguists refer to as the ability to use tropes).
Many researches have tried to teach primates language, and
while some chimps and apes have been more successful than others
in language acquisition, the end result has always shown that
primates can only learn language to a certain extent, and usually
only things related to stimulus-controlled phenomena like eating and
drinking. Language was only rarely spontaneous with these animals,
they usually displayed redundancy and imitation, and no research
shows them to have the same ability of language learning like a
human child. Gua was a chimp in the 1930s that was raised as a
child along with the researcher's own baby son. Gua understood
more words than the human boy at sixteen months, but never
learned any more than that, while the boy of course did. Among
other things, primates have a different vocal apparatus than ours
which prevents them from producing spoken language. Research has
simply shown that primates are not capable of learning human
language.
Non-primates have shown an even lesser chance of acquiring
human language. Dolphins have shown the ability to understand and act
on certain commands, but they have not displayed understanding for
"novel utterances, metaphors, jokes, and lies." Not to mention the fact
that producing spoken human language is simply impossible for these
animals. Like other animals, dolphins also have a limited number of
messages which they produce amongst each other. Dolphins, as well as
apes and other animals have no way of communicating about the past,
expressing their feelings, lying to each other, and among other things,
talking smack about their enemies. Human language, however, differs
because it gives us the ability to do all of those things and more.
The important disparity is human language is culturally
transmitted. Thus human beings brought up in different culture acquire
different languages also by the influence of other culture man can learn
other languages in course of time. But animals lack in this capacity.
Their communication ability is transmitted biologically so they are
unable to acquire other languages. Human language is a symbolic

11. The Theme of Differences between human languag e…...
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system. Hence human language is not only uttered but also can be
displayed by writing with the help of certain symbols called alphabets
of that language. Animal communication fails to disclose in this
manner. Hence ideas or main events of any time cannot be preserved
for the future generation.
Biological differences also play a vital role in communication.
Human vocal cords can produce a large number of sounds. Each human
language makes its own selection of sounds for it use. Animal and birds
have an entirely different biological structure with regard to the
formation of sounds.
Systems of communication are not unique to human beings.
Other animal species communicate in a variety of ways. One way is by
sound: a bird may communicate by a call that a territory is his and
should not be encroached upon. Another means of animal
communication is by odor: an ant releases a chemical when it dies, and
other ants then carry it away to the compost heap. A third means of
communication is body movement, for example used by honeybees to
convey the location of food sources. Although primates use all three
methods of communication: sound, odor,-and body movement, sound is
the method of primary interest since it is our own primary means of
communication. A topic of persistent debate in linguistic anthropology
is whether human communication (verbal and nonverbal) is similar to
nonhuman primate communication, such as seen in apes and monkeys.
Linguistics and primatologists have searched for a common thread
running through the communication systems of humans and nonhuman
primates.
Conclusion
Human language is entirely different from animal
communication. Human language has many properties which
makes it different from animal communication. Human language
has alphabets which help man to write down and, preserve ideas for
coming generations. Animal communication is context bound, they
cannot communicate any experience of past. Animal
communication is biologically transmitted thus it cannot learn any
other languages. Some birds like parrot may imitate human
utterances but it reiterate the words without knowing meaning also
fails to learn more words. If they try to learn new utterance the
older ones get erased. Whereas human beings can imitate the

12. The Theme of Differences between human language…….
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sounds of animals and make them respond to the sounds easily.
Hence human communication or human language is a unique one
which is the sole property of him.
Human and non-human communication have been investigated
from a great variety of perspectives within science, and very few
disciplines seem to agree on a definition of language. It is of crucial
importance that we know exactly what language is if research in non -
human communication is to be accepted as evidence of linguistic
ability. Some linguists would rather redefine language in order,to
defend human uniqueness than accept a linguistic continuity on a
biological basis. This rigid view reflects a long bias and is not getting
us anywhere. Many linguists agree with Chomsky's theory, but the
primary function" of language is that of communication, and the
biological and social context cannot be ignored. In the search for a
plausible scientific explanation, we should look closely at the non-
human systems of social communication in order to find out whether
they share the rules and principles of human languages, by observing
how they are used, how their components are put together, and how
they interrelate with other things.
If we accept a linguistic continuity, language cannot be without
some kind of intermediate stages, and it seems obvious that animal
communication has been the precursors of human speech. The fact that
chimpanzees are able to learn a human sign language indicates that our
common ancestor must have had a capacity for this kind of communication
and that nature has built up signed and spoken language on these ancient
foundations. The question whether non-human species in a state of nature
have developed a kind of communication similar to that of humans remain
open the communication of the wild animals who would be most likely to
use grammar have not yet been investigated. When deriving our
information from laboratory experiments and observations of animals in
captivity, we cannot equate our results with that can be observed of
animals living free in the wild, the reports on apes in captivity show that
trained apes to some extent are capable of acquiring human language, but
human children would probably find it just as difficult to acquire any
system of primate-communication if they were removed from their natural
environment and exposed to any such experiments controlled by members
of other pecies. The maturation of certain language centres in the brain
could explain why syntax seems to be absent in the utterances of two-
years-old children and trained apes, apparently, the brains of chimpanzees

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do not lack the structures necessary for language development, but they
may lack the structures responsible for syntax, it seems that their brains
reach a fully developed stage when they are similar to those of very young
children. Naturally, chimpanzees are not capable of mastering a language
that has taken us centuries to develop, however, no experiments have
involved adult chimpanzees as they grow too big to handle, e.g. washoe
received no further training after the age of four and may not have reached
the limit of her abilities, within an .evolutionary perspective, it seems a
plausible scientific explanation that the language of trained apes represents
an further development of communication systems also found among other
species rather than being uniquely human.
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University Press.
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- Chomsky, N. (1968). Language and Mind. Use : Harcourt Brace &
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- Demers, R. A. (1988). Linguistics and animal communication. In
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14. The Theme of Differences between human language…….
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- Smith, F. and Miller, G. A. (1968). The Genesis of Language –
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