Emile van der Zee & Kun Guo
Abstract
This chapter considers the features of human and animal communication. It presents our current state of knowledge on calls, words, gestures, and their combinations, and discusses the acquisition and use of these communicative tools across different species. The chapter investigates where human and animal communication systems are similar (so that we can communicate with each other) and where they differ (so that certain communication is impossible). The chapter considers these similarities and differences from a quantitative perspective (for example, the number of calls or words that are available in communication) as well as from a qualitative perspective (for example, the way in which call or word combinations are constructed). One of the conclusions drawn in this chapter, based on the current literature, is that some animals are able to communicate information based on two-call-sequences, but not beyond this level of complexity. Human language, however, exceeds this level of complexity when constructing sentences.
Reading recommendations
Bee, M. A., & Miller, C. T. (Eds.). (2017). Psychological mechanisms in animal communication (Vol. 5). Springer.
Hauser, M. D., Konishi, M., & Konishi, M. (Eds.). (1999). The design of animal communication. MIT press.
Horowitz, A. (2010). Inside of a dog: What dogs see, smell, and know. Simon and Schuster.
Stegmann, U. (Ed.). (2013). Animal communication theory: Information and influence. Cambridge University Press.
Web resources and Presentation recommendations
Did dog domestication contribute to language evolution? link here
Activity
How do humans interpret animal signalling? Have a look at this quiz on great ape gestures
This game was originally part of our research study titled “The Great Ape Dictionary” by Catherine Hobaiter & Kirsty Graham from the University of St Andrews (https://greatapedictionary.ac.uk/).