Defining human and Animal Communication

THESIS:
Humans have domesticated a good number of animals over their span of history, among these are pets. As humans with emotions, we tend to get so attached to that fluffy dog or cat that we start to give them human characteristics that only belong to us. We are all guilty of this, including myself. We want that animal to be a part of our family so much that we begin to mistake simple animal behavior for something way beyond. Animals cannot communicate with human beings; they can only do sophisticated tricks for things like food and comfort. They do not understand what the words of our language are, but they can do certain things when they hear the placement of our sounds, tones, gestures, and even facial expressions. Animals are just adapting to where they can survive and be comfortable.

Quotes:

“The Standard explanation is that the animal produces a particular behavior in response to a particular sound-stimulus or ‘noise’, but does not actually ‘understand’ what the words in the noise mean.” (From “The Study of Language” by George Yule)

I plan to use this quote to explain to my audience that animals merely respond to a noise that they have been trained to. For example: A human trains its dog that “come” means to go to the position of its master with means of food and comfort. The animal sees this as a good thing, as it helps it survive, and will follow the noise that it is trained to. The dog does not understand the meaning of come, but it knows it will be rewarded so it obeys.

“ As in may critical studies of animal learning, the chimpanzees are cleaver creatures who learn to produce a certain type of behavior (signing or symbol selection) in order to get rewards and are essentially performing sophisticated ‘tricks’.” (From “The Study of Language” by George Yule)

This quote is perfect for me to begin my rant about how the animals that are able to sign or use symbols are merely just doing what the dog, in my latter example, is doing. The only difference is that the chimpanzee has found a more clever way to accomplish what the dog is trying to do.

“Therefore, in a number of cases, vocal interactions in animals do conform to the basic
requirements of turn-taking organization, both in its general context-free aspects
and in contextual flexibility.” (From “Evolution of Communicative Flexibility: Complexity, Creativity, and Adaptability in Human and Animal Communication” by Oller, D. Kimbrough. Griebel, Ulrike.)

I am using this quote to argue with it of course….animals only show turn based organization because that’s how everything flows. All causes have an effect, and to be honest humans are more of a disordered turn system. We talk to each other all the time while the other is talking, so this theory that humans and animals share a turn based system of communication is wrong.