NONHUMAN

COMMUNICATION
Animal communication

hamzah

Dr. Hamzah, M.A., M.M.

English Department
State University of Padang
 Nonhuman Comm: Spiders
• Before a male spider approaches a female
to mate, he goes through an elaborate 2
sequence of gestures.
• The gestures are invariant.
• If he does it wrong, she eats him!
Nonhuman Comm : Songbirds
• Male songbirds use their songs to establish a
territory.
• This serves as a warning to other males and as
an invitation to prospective mates.
• In European Robins, the songs can vary in
complicated ways, but the only aspect of this
variation
that “matters” is the alternation between high and
low-pitched notes. This communicates how
intensely the robin will defend this territory .
 Nonhuman Comm : Vervet Monkeys

• African Vervet monkeys live in close-knit social

groups.
• They use three distinct “calls” to signal danger.
1. Snake: Troupe stands on hind legs and scans the
ground.
2. Leopard: Troupe climbs onto smallest branches
of nearby trees.
3. Eagle: Troupe climbs trees but stays close to
trunk or dives into dense bushes
 Nonhuman Comm : Vervet
Monkeys
• Different alarm calls
to different threats
– Snakes
– Eagles/airborne
predators
– Leopards/terrestrial
predators
– Other vervets
 Nonhuman Comm : Vervet
Monkeys
• Snake alarms
Sounds and movie from Marc Hauser
– Response: monkeys
cluster & stare
• Eagle/airborne predator
alarm
– – Response: drop from
trees into tall grass or
bushes for cover
• Leopard/terrestrial
predator alarm
– Response: run for trees
and go to ends of branches
 Nonhuman Comm : Vervet
Monkeys
• Vervet Monkey Alarm
Calls
•  Predator-specific:
•  AAAH, Eagle!
•  AAAH, Leopard!
•  AAAH, Snake!
•  or maybe:
•  Danger from above!
•  Danger from bushes!
•  Danger on ground!
 Nonhuman Comm : Vervet
Monkeys
• But a Vervet can’t express:
•  “There was a snake over there
yesterday, so watch your feet.”
•  “Where did you say that leopard was?”
•  “Why’s everyone running? Did I miss
something?”
 Similarities to language
• Naming?
– – Responses appear to be
meaning-based, not
soundform based
• Calls appear to be
intentional
• Making calls requires
learning
• Listeners take the
speaker into account
• Possibly productive?
– Chaney & Seyfarth
 Another big similarity
• Critical periods
– Some birds need to get exposure to their
species’
• song within a limited time frame, or they
can never learn it.
Cognition, Language, and Intelligence

Nonhuman Comm: Bee

• Humans have most flexible, symbolic
communication
• Bees have simple, elegant form of
communication
– Round dance – distance communicated
but not direction
– Tail-wagging dance – direction
communicated by angle to sun and
distances through loose figure-eight
patterns
 Nonhuman Comm: Bee
• Honeybees
• • When a forager bee locates food it returns to the hive
and performs a dance.
• • The number of repetitions of the dance communicates
the quality of the food.
• • Distance is communicated by the form of the dance.
• – Round Dance: < 20 ft
• – Sickle Dance: 20 – 60 ft.
• – Tail-Wagging Dance: > 60 ft, coded by rate
• • Direction is also communicated in the sickle and tail-
wagging dances.
Cognition, Language, and Intelligence

Direction of
flower

Round dance

Tail-wagging dance
 Honeybee communication
• Dances can
communicate
– the odor of the food
(quality)
– its direction from the
hive
– its distance from the
hive
 Ex: Italian bee has three different
patterns of
• dance - round, sickle, and tail-
wagging.
– Round dance = near hive (within
20 feet or so)
• Gives information about distance, and
quality (more vivacity)
– sickle dance = intermediate
distance, 20-60 feet
• Adds in direction (angle from sun)
– tail-wagging for longer distances
Apis mellifera (domestic honeybee)
has two dances

• Round dance = near

hive (within 50-75
meters)
• waggle dance for
longer distances
– direction of straight
part tells direction
– speed at which the
dance is repeated
indicates distance
 between the speed of the dance
and the distance to the food– (from
German ethologist Karl vonFrisch. )
Relationship between the angle of the dance
on the vertical comb and the bearing of the
sun with respect to the location of food.
• Honeybee Dance
Conveys location
of source of nectar
• Under 50m away -
– ‘Round dance’
• Over 50m away -
– ‘Waggle dance’ -
• encodes distance
direction
The Waggle Dance
 The Waggle Dance

• Honeybees can express more than

• Vervets, but still limited...
• Can’t express:
– “I know this great spot where the flowers are
all blooming, so it’ll be a nectar bonanza
pretty soon!”
– “There’s a kick-ass hive in the next tree; let’s
go check it out.”
Example
s from
honeybe
es..and
what is
called
animal
semiosis
.
 Nonhuman Comm: Bird
• Most bird calls innate,
but not all
• Researchers in the
1950s raised a
bullfinch with a
canary.
– Bullfinch learned the
canary’s song.
– Its offspring (& its
offsprings’ offspring)
did also
 Nonhuman Comm: Bird
• Chaffinch have
dialects
– As 1-year-olds,
they learn the
dialect of the area
in which they have
chosen to live &
breed
 Nonhuman Comm: Bird
• A chaffinch reared in
isolation had a simple,
proto-song
– The right length, but
without the typical
structure.
• Like human
language?
 Sparrow Song

• Highly structured notes,

syllables, phrases
• Regional variation
• Sensitive period
• Fixed meaning
• Seems to have both
innate and learned
components (but still
classified as instinct)
 So can (non-human) animals learn
human language?

• Primates?
• Washoe
• Nim Chimpsky
• Kanzi
• Birds?
• Alex
• Sea Lions?
• Dolphins?
Cognition, Language, and Intelligence

Animal Language
• Teaching primates language
– Washoe – limited use of ASL
– Koko - demonstrated more spontaneous
and generative use of language than
Washoe
– The primates did not master human
syntax
– Accomplishments of both is less than
that of 3-year-old humans
 Why teach animals human
language?

• Snowdon (1993): ethologists are to

psychologists as anthropologists are to
missionaries
• What aspects of language can they acquire?
• Is language a general skill or a specialized
module?
• What does it tell us about human development
and evolutionary history?
• And… wouldn’t it be cool to talk to animals?
 So is it language?
•  Language vs. Communication
•  Features of Language (remember?)
•  Communicative
•  Arbitrarily symbolic
•  Regularly structured (at multiple levels)
•  Generative / Productive
•  Dynamic
•  Duality of patterning
• Animal Language

• Yule, George (1996). The Study of

Language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. (chapter 4)
 Animal Language
• Do animals understand spoken
language?
• Whoa to horses they stop
• Heel to dogs  they follow at heel
• Standard explanation:
• S R (Stimulus – Response)
 Teaching chimpanzees
• Luella and Winthrop KELLOG (1930)
• Infant chimpanzee Gua
• Raised together with their infant son
• Gua understood about 100 words but did
not say any of them
 Early Studies

Kellog & Kellog (1933) raised an infant chimpanzee named

Gau along with their own infant
son.
• – At 16 months she understood more words (about 100)
than the human infant.
• – She never got any better.
• • Hayes (1951) also tied to raise a chimp at home.
• – With great difficulty Vicki learned to articulate “mama,”
“papa” and “cup”.
• • Apes are not adapted for speech!
 Teaching chimpanzees
• Catherine and Keith HAYES (1940s)
• reared Viki as if she were a human child
• shaped her mouth as she produced
sounds
• Viki managed to produce words: mama,
papa and cup (poorly articulated)
 Teaching chimpanzees
• Beatrix and Allan GARDNER (1966)
• Female chimpanzee Washoe
• American sign language
• Over period of 3 ½ years
• Washoe used signs for more than 100
words (airplane, banana, window, woman,
you...)
 Teaching animals human language:
Chimpanzees

• Kelloggs and Hayes,

1930s:
• Gua and Viki.
• Chimpanzees do not
have the equipment
for spoken language
Cognition, Language, and Intelligence

Mastered 150 signs

for limited but useful
commands such as
“Gimme sweet drink”
Washoe

Mastered 600 signs for more

generative communication such as
“That Koko”
“Finger bracelet”
“I was sad and cried this morning”
Koko
 chimpanzees Washoe
• common chimp (b.
1966)
• ASL
• 130 signs in 4 yrs
• generalized
• spontaneous combos
• no systematic use of
word order, etc.
 Chimpanzees: Washoe
• developed the ability to produce sentences
• Gimme tickle, more fruit, open food drink
(refrigerator)
• understood far more signs than she could
actually produce
 Chimpanzees: Washoe
• • Washoe’s trainers always conversed in ASL
when they were around her.
• • By the time she was 5 years old she had
acquired 151 signs.
• • She is able to use signs in novel yet
appropriate combinations.
• – water bird
• – dirty Roger
• – open faucet
• • She does not appear to be sensitive to word
order.
 chimpanzees
• Ann and David Premack (1972)
• chimpanzee Sarah
• set of plastic shapes for communicating
• shapes represented words e.g. blue
triangle  apple
 Chimpanzees: Sarah
• vertical order to build sentences
• Mary give chocolate Sarah.
• understood complex structures such as:
• If Sarah put red and green, Mary give
Sarah chocolate.
 Chimpanzees: Sarah

• Premack & Premack (1972) tried to teach an

artificial language to Sarah.
• Sarah was an adult chimp kept in typical
laboratory conditions.
• Plastic symbols differing in shape, color and size
were used as words.
• – “Apple” is a small, red square.
• These are arranged on a magnetic board.
• Food rewards are used to reinforce correct
responses
 Chimpanzees: Sarah

• Sarah learned about 130 words.

• She does appear to be sensitive to word order!
• – “If Sarah put red on green, Mary give Sarah
chocolate.”
• • She seems to understand some
“transformations”.
• – Trained on sentences like “Sarah insert
banana pail. Sarah insert apple dish.”
• – Responded correctly to “Sarah insert apple
pail banana dish.”
 chimpanzees
• Duane Rumbaugh (1977)
• chimpanzee Lana
• used artificial language Yerkish
• set of symbols on a large keyboard linked
to a computer
 Lana
• could press up to four symbols in the
correct sequence to produce messages
• e.g.: please machine give water.
 chimpanzees
• Herbert Terrace (1979)
• arguments against the evidence of
linguistic abilities in animals
• chimp: Nim Chimsky (play on the linguist
Noam Chomsky)
 Nim Chimsky
• American Sign Language under controlled
conditions
• videotaping of classroom activities over a
two year period
 Nim Chimsky
• produced a large number of single-word
signs
• developed two-word combinations such as
more drink, give banana
• Nim’s longer utterances were simply a
repetition of simpler structures, not an
expansion into more complex structures
 Nim Chimsky

• common chimp (b.

1973)
• ASL
• controlled instruction
• (unlike Washoe)
• acquired 2-, 3-, and
4-word sequences...
• Nim’s longest
recorded utterance
 Teaching animals human
language

• Terrace et al. 1979: Nim

• Chimpsky
• Can chimpanzees create
new sentences?
• How much behavior is
language, and how much
is copying?
• If human children also
copy, why does it matter?
 Kanzi
•  Bonobo ape (b.
1980)  Lexigram
system
• learned as mom was
being trained
• knows ≈ 250
lexigrams
• & understands
3000+
• spoken words (w/
headphones)
• but still only 2-word
phrases...
Kanzi
 Teaching animals human
language

• Savage-Rumbaugh et
al. : Kanzi the Bonobo
• Learned English (similar
to a 2-year old human)
• Learned the keyboard
from his mother.
• Why don’t language
abilities progress, as they
do in human children?
 Kanzi

• Kanzi is the star of animal language

studies today (Savage-Rumbaugh,
Shanker & Taylor, 1998).
• He is a Bonobo chimp.
– VERY social
– VERY smart
• He uses a keyboard language called
Yerkish.
 Kanzi

• Kanzi was not formally introduced to

Yerkish.
• He sat on his adopted mother’s back while
she received lessons in Yerkish.
• Mom never learned, but Kanzi started
using the keyboard spontaneously.
• Since then his “training” has consisted of
walks in the woods.
 Kanzi
• Kanzi understands over 200 symbols.
• He also responds appropriately to spoken
utterances.
– “Take off Sue’s shoe.”
– “Give the dog a shot.”
• He spontaneously produces two and three word
sentences and freely combines symbols with
gestures and vocalizations.
• He is sensitive to word order.
• Responds correctly to 70% of unfamiliar
sentences.
 Teaching animals human
language

• Terrace et al. 1977:

Lana
• Computer keyboard
used for
communication
• Sherman and Austin
also used keyboard
 Alex
• African grey parrot (b.
1976)
• Speech produced very
differently from
humans (but sounds
remarkably accurate)
• Knows 100+ object
names & some fixed
expressions
• Answers simple
questions about
objects
• Requires lots of
training
 Grey Parrots

• Irene Pepperberg has spent 25 years

teaching Grey Parrots “meaningful use of
English speech”.
• Alex is her star pupil.
• Model/Rival Training
• Performance is amazing!
 Model/Rival Training
• Trainer + Model/Rival + Parrot
• Trainer presents objects to the model/rival
and queries them about it.
– Correct: Get the item.
– Incorrect: Get corrective feedback.
• The only reward is the object talked about,
but after a correct response the parrot can
request something it wants (e.g., a nut).
 Performance is Amazing!

• “Alex exhibits cognitive capacities

comparable to those of marine mammals,
apes, and sometimes 4-year-old children.”
• Alex correctly labels
• 50+ objects
• 7 colors
• 5 shapes
• quantities up to 6
 Performance is Amazing!
• He correctly uses
• “No.”
• “Come here.”
• “Wanna go X.”
• “Want Y.”
• He combines labels to correctly identify
more than 100 objects in his environment.
• He surfs the internet!
 Is it really language?
• Most (psycho)linguists say no!
• Chomsky’s Criteria
• Bolinger’s Criteria
• What do you think?
• Most (psycho)linguists say no!
• • “In my mind this kind of research is more
analogous to the bears of the Moscow
Circus who are trained to ride unicycles.”
(S. Pinker)
• • Attempting to teach linguistic skills to
animals is like trying to teach people to
flap their arms and fly. (N. Chomsky)
 Chomsky’s Criteria
• Language has structural principles such as
grammar.
• Language has various physical mechanisms (in
the brain) of which little is known.
• Language is used for the expression of thought,
for establishing social relationships, and for the
communication of ideas.
• Language has been integrated into a system of
cognitive structure
 Bolinger’s Criteria
• Language is human.
• Language is behavior.
• The medium of language is sound.
• Language is hierarchic.
• Language changes to outwit change.
• Language is embedded in gesture.
• Language is both arbitrary and non-arbitrary.
• Language is vertical (paradigmatic) as well as horizontal
(syntagmatic).
• Languages are similarly structured.
• Language is heard as well as spoken.
• What do you think?
• • Is it really language?
• • Do we know what language is?
• • Is language special?
• • What, if anything, have we learned from
attempts to teach language to animals?
 Similar experiments
• Clever Hans: German horse
• could use his hoof beats to answer
arithmetical questions
• responded to subtle visual clues
 Dolphins
• Buzz and Doris (1960s)
• Means of signalling across an opaque barrier
• Doris was able to tell Buzz how he could get a
fish snack
• when Doris saw a flashing light she had to press
a paddle on the left hand side and tell Buzz to
do the same
• when the light was kept steady Doris had to
press the right hand paddle
 Dolphins
• behaviour was just conditioned responses
• Doris would continue to tell Buzz when he
could see the light himself and even when
he was taken out of the tank
 Dolphins
• Dolphins are social animals.
• • They use clicks for echolocation.
• • Each dolphin has a “signature whistle”.
• • Louis Herman and his colleagues at the U of
Hawaii have taught artificial
• languages to wild-caught dolphins.
• – computer generated high-pitched “words”
• – hand gestures
 Dolphins
• Each language consists of about 40 words.
• – Nouns (e.g., hoop, frisbee, person, ball)
• – Verbs (e.g., under, fetch)
• – Modifiers (e.g., surface, bottom, right, left)
• • Uses a SOV Grammar
• – Phoenix Ake under 􀃆 Phoenix go under Ake.
• • Food rewards for correct responses to
commands.
 Dolphins

• The dolphins learn all the words.

• They make appropriate use of word order.
– right hoop left frisbee fetch (Take the frisbee on
your left to the hoop on your right.)
– left hoop right frisbee fetch (Take the frisbee on
your right to the hoop on your left.)
• They respond correctly to novel combinations of
words.
 Noam Chomsky
• ‘the acquisition of even the barest
rudiments of language is quite beyond the
capacity of an otherwise intelligent ape.‘
 Nonhuman Language
3. Much of animal language is subtle and
low-key, though some non-human primate
languages do exhibit more complex
characteristics like the signals being
graded—a particular vocalization will vary
in intensity through changes in volume
and/or duration.
 Nonhuman Language
4. Much of non-human linguistics remain
speculative because of the inferences that
the researcher has to make in order to
infer higher-level language and thought.
 Nonhuman Language
5. Some too suggest
that such studies or
"attempts to impose
human language on
nonhuman primates...
[are]...a 'thoroughly
anthropocentric
enterprise''
(Hickerson p. 32).
 Nonhuman Language
6. Misconceptions about animal
language—such as in wolves
howling at the moon.
 Characteristics
A. In addition to the specific
biological and cognitive
requirements of human language
[See Figures 1.1 and 1.3], there
are specifics of human language
that mark its uniqueness.
Characteristics
Characteristics
 Design Features
Charles Hockett's
Design Features of
Language
 Design Features
1. Vocal-auditory Channel
• – humans communicate via
speech, out of mouth, into ear
• – advantages compared with
other forms: touch, odor, visual
 Design Features
2. Broadcast transmission and directional
reception
• – anyone in broad range can hear
speech
• – also get information regarding
direction and timing of sound
 Design Features

3. Rapid fading (transitoriness):

• – speech signal is transitory, so
gone quickly – this is generally
a disadvantage
 Design Features

4. Interchangeability
• – any human can say what any
other human can say
 Design Features
5. Total feedback
• – hear and feel our speech, so
able to adjust – compensate for
loss of hearing or motor speech
skill
 Design Features
6.Specialization
• – Communication mode
(speech) is only used for
communication – unique
structures
 Design Features
7. Semanticity: association of
linguistic signals with aspects of
the social, cultural and physical
world of a speech community
(some features of the world are
highlighted, others are
downplayed)
– human language is able to
convey very specific, detailed
messages
– words have stable relationships
to the objects/events they
represent
 Design Features
8. Arbitrariness: open
nature of the link
between sound and
meaning; Saussure's
notion
 Design
9. Discreteness:
Features
• – language is limited to a small
number of sounds
• – relatively small differences
between sounds
 Design Features
* 10. Displacement: the
ability to refer to some
thing or event that is not
present. Many animal
vocalizations often
occur in the presence of
stimuli, as when the
sight of a predator
elicits a danger call.
 Design Features
* 11. Productivity: a system
that can grow. Human
language is creative and
one can create new
messages. Human
language is thus an "open"
system while animal
language is "closed," such
as in the case of only being
able to relate to hunting,
danger situations, etc.
 Design
* 12. Traditional
Features
transmission: perhaps the
most significant of the 4 *,
this is what links language
to culture. Specific
languages are taught and
learned. They are passed
on from one generation to
the next. In turn, language
enables humans to learn
other things, through
tradition rather than
through direct experience.
Such learning has a great
survival value.
 Design Features
13. Duality of patterning: presumably the most
recent development, this illustrates a system of
phonemes (sounds) and morphemes
(meaningful units). Language is patterned on a
level of sound and on a level of meaning. All
modern languages with this system have a
virtually limitless capacity for expression.
Non-Linguistic Features