is language restricted to humans

IS LANGUAGE RESTRICTED TO HUMANS?

By

Nafiri Muhammadi 1

Introduction Judging by newspapers and popular books, there appear to be a vast number of animals which talk talking budgerigars, talking dolphins even a talking sh.

Clearly, the word talk can be used in two totally different senses:

1) to utter words

2) to use language in a meaningful way.

Psycholinguists would like to investigate whether animals can talk in a meaningful way. They are interested in this research because they want to know the answer to the following question:

Are we the only species which possesses language?

If so, are we the only species capable of acquiring it?

Aitchison (2008)

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Introduction

This current chapter examines these topics based on Aitchisons views in his book, The articulate mammal.

First, animal communication systems are compared with human language to examine whether animals can be considered to talk in any real sense.

Second, various attempts to teach languages to animals are put into consideration.

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Do Animals Talk Naturally? To answer the question, the first task is to investigate whether any animals naturally have a true language. Then, we have to compare human language with animal communication.

Aitchison proposes two special problems to be discussed before a coherent reply to the question, Do animals talk naturally can be given.

1) The first problem is this: are we comparing systems which differ quantitatively or qualitatively?

2) It is not always easy to decide what counts as communication in animals.

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Do Animals Talk Naturally?

There are two theories of communication, continuity and discontinuity theory to answer the question: are we comparing systems which differ quantitatively or qualitatively?

Continuity theory is about means of communication in a continuous line of growth.

Discontinuity theory is about the differences the basic of animal heritage and superimposed on it. Language is a complex mosaic in which some features are continuous, and some discontinuous with animal communication. Actually, animal is intentionally trying to convey information surrounding it.

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Essential Nature of Human Language

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1) The vocalauditory channel

2) Arbitrariness

3) Semanticity

4) Cultural transmission

5) Spontaneous usage

6) Turn-taking

7) Duality

8) Displacement

9) Structure-dependence

10) Creativity

11) Ability to read intentions.

(Hockett and Altmann 1968)

Let us discuss each of these features in turn, and see whether it is present in animal communication. If any animal naturally possesses all the design features of human language, then clearly that animal can talk.


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1) The Use of the Vocal-Auditory Channel

Sounds are made with the vocal organs, and a hearing mechanism receives them. The advantages of this method of producing the sound are that it leaves the body free to carry on other activities at the same time, and also requires relatively little physical energy. This characteristic is of little use in an attempt to distinguish animal from human communication. (a) language can be transferred without loss to visual symbols and (b) patients who have had their vocal cords removed, and communicate mainly by writing, have not lost their language ability.


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2) Arbitrariness

Arbitrariness means that human languages use neutral symbols. There is no connection between the word DOG and the four-legged animal it symbolizes. It can equally be called UN CHIEN (French), EIN HUND (German), or CANIS (Latin). GL (Turkish) and RHODON (Greek) are equally satisfactory names for a rose.

So we conclude that arbitrariness cannot be regarded as a critical distinction between human and animal communication.


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3) Semanticity

Semanticity, the third suggested test for language ability, is the use of symbols to mean or refer to objects and actions. To a human, a CHAIR means a four-legged contraption you can sit on. Furthermore, semanticity applies to actions as well as objects. For example, to JUMP means the act of leaping in the air. Some writers have claimed that semanticity is exclusively human.


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4) Cultural Transmission or Tradition

Cultural transmission or tradition indicates that human beings transfer their languages down from one generation to another. The role played by teaching in animal communication is unclear and varies from animal to animal and even with species.

An evidence is that A child brought up in isolation away from human beings, does not acquire language. In contrast, birds reared in isolation sing songs that are sometimes recognizable, though almost always abnormal.


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5) Spontaneous Usage & 8,3,6 Turn Taking

Spontaneous usage indicates that humans initiate speech freely. Speaking is not something which they do under forcible restriction, like a dog that will stand on its hind legs only when a biscuit is held above its nose. This feature is certainly not restricted to humans, and many animals use their natural communication systems freely.


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6) Duality or Double-Articulation

Duality or double-articulation means that language is organized into two layers: the basic sound units of speech, such as P, I, G, are normally meaningless by themselves. They only become meaningful when combined into sequences such as P-I-G PIG. This property is sometimes claimed to be unique to humans. But this is not so. Duality is also present in birdsong, where each individual note is itself meaningless it is the combinations of notes which convey meaningful messages. So once again we have not found a critical difference between animals and humans in their use of this feature.


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7) Displacement

The ability to refer to things far removed in time and place. Humans frequently say things such as My Aunt Matilda, who lives in Australia, cracked her knee-cap last week. It may be impossible for an animal to convey a similar item of information. However, as in the case of other design features, it is sometimes difcult to decide whether displacement is present in an animals communication system.


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8) Structure Dependence

Humans do not just apply simple recognition or counting techniques when they speak to one another. They automatically recognize the patterned nature of language, and manipulate structured chunks. For example, they understand that a group of words can sometimes be the structural equivalent of one:

As far as we know, animals do not use structure-dependent operations. We do not know enough about the communication of all animals to be sure, but no denite example has yet been found.


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9) Creativity

This feature refers to the ability to produce and understand an indefinite number of novel utterances. Humans can talk about anything they like without causing any linguistic problems to themselves or the hearers. They can say what they want when they want. Most animals have a fixed number of signals which convey a set number of messages, sent in clearly definable circumstances. Some animals try to communicate to courting a mate and the marking of territory.


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10) Intention Reading

Human beings are the worlds experts at mind reading. As compared with other species, humans are much more skillful at discerning what others are perceiving, intending, desiring, knowing, and believing. Although the pinnacle of mind-reading is understanding beliefs as beliefs are indisputably mental and normative the foundational skill is understanding intentions.


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In order to qualify as talkers they have to utilize all the design characteristics of human language naturally, the answer is clearly no.

a) no animal communication system has duality and displacement,

b) no animal system can be proved to have semanticity or

c) to use structure dependent operations,

d) no animal can communicate creatively with another animal, and

e) no animal can mind-read with ease and efficiency of humans.

Although animals do not naturally talk this does not mean that they are incapable of talking.

Teaching Sign Language to Apes: Washoe and Nim

Over the past 50 or so years, several attempts have been made to teach human language to chimpanzees. The rst experiment was a failure. An animal named Gua was acquired by Luella and Winthrop Kellogg in 1931, when she was 7 months old (Brown 1958; Kellogg and Kellogg 1933). She was brought up as if she was a human baby, and was fed with a spoon, bathed, pinned up in nappies, and continuously exposed to speech. Although she eventually managed to understand the meaning of over seventy single words, she never spoke. Gua showed clearly that it was not just lack of opportunity which prevents a chimp from learning language. The Kelloggs son Donald, who was brought up alongside Gua, and was approximately the same age, grew up speaking normally.

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Signer 1: Washoe

The chimp was kept continuously surrounded by humans who communicated with her and each other by sign. The chimp acquired a number of single words, her speech clearly had semanticity, she could also generalize the situation, displacement, and creativity. The fact that this chimp spontaneously transmitted signs to another chimp is interesting and important, but it does not change these signs into language.

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Signer 2: Nim

Repetitive, inconsistently structured strings are in fact characteristic of ape signing. The experiment conclude that (1) Nim did not use his signs in the structured, creative, social way that is characteristic of human children, (2) it would be premature to conclude that a chimpanzees combination show the same structure evident in the sentences of a child, (3) Nims signing with his teachers bore only a superficial resemblance to a childs conversations with his or her parents.

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Conquerors of the Keyboard Pointers: Lana & Kanzi

Pointers : Lana

Lana showed that her system had semanticity, she also showed some evidence of creativity and displacement. Lanas trainers, confidently claim that she had language, but they define language in a much broader way than we have done. That is, they define it as any communication system which refers consistently to the outside world by means of a set of arbitrary symbols which are combined together in accordance with conventional rules.

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Conquerors of the Keyboard Pointers: Lana & Kanzi

Pointer 2: Kanzi

Kanzi is a highly intelligent, sociable creature. But his language is not significantly more advanced than that of the other primates. He used symbols primarily to obtain items he wanted. The notion of talking for the sake of talking is largely a human attribute.

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Conclusion Let us now summarize our conclusions on these primates. We need to recognize, perhaps, that having language is not an all or nothing matter. It is misleading to treat language like virginity you either have it or you dont (Miles 1983: 44). All the apes we have discussed can cope with arbitrary symbols and semanticity, and display some displacement and creativity in their speech. They therefore have a grasp of some design characteristics of language which hitherto had been regarded as specically human. However, their ability does not extend much further. The animals show little evidence of structure, they merely display a preference for placing certain symbols rst or last in a sequence.

The final conclusion of this chapter is that the apparent ease with which humans acquire language, compared with other apes, supports the suggestion that they are innately programmed to do so.

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