Right, but I’d say there’s two aspects to language:
Standardization. Different creatures need to agree on which sounds/symbols/etc. refer to what.
Complexity. The ability to express arbitrary thoughts.
And well, I’d say if 1) is given, that aids us. A cat purring means that cat is content. We don’t need to figure that out anew every time.
But 2) does not aid us. We should have an easier time understanding and responding to simpler thoughts than arbitrarily complex thoughts.
And yet, we’re going straight for arbitrary complexity, while we still have barriers with simple communication, like not even being able to purr back at cats.
There is lots of evidence of animals doing more than making sounds to identify things. Alex, the African Grey parrot had some pretty advanced concepts, such as numbers and even 0. When not in the mood to work, Alex would just make up wrong answers to be left alone, and would show irritation towards other parrots that were not understanding concepts.
Dolphins have shown the ability to creaye, communicate about, and and coordinate tricks that neither of two dolphins had previously performed.
There was an elephant that knew where an animal hospital was despite having had never been, it had been around elephants that had been however, so the assumption is that the location and activities there had been communicated.
These are just a few examples, there are many more instances where animals have been observed doing more than just labeling things with sound. This is actually why this community exists.
Whales make sounds and can “say” some things, but that’s not a language any more than my dog barking at me to feed him is.
Language is more complex than simply making sounds to identify things.
Right, but I’d say there’s two aspects to language:
And well, I’d say if 1) is given, that aids us. A cat purring means that cat is content. We don’t need to figure that out anew every time.
But 2) does not aid us. We should have an easier time understanding and responding to simpler thoughts than arbitrarily complex thoughts.
And yet, we’re going straight for arbitrary complexity, while we still have barriers with simple communication, like not even being able to purr back at cats.
There is lots of evidence of animals doing more than making sounds to identify things. Alex, the African Grey parrot had some pretty advanced concepts, such as numbers and even 0. When not in the mood to work, Alex would just make up wrong answers to be left alone, and would show irritation towards other parrots that were not understanding concepts.
Dolphins have shown the ability to creaye, communicate about, and and coordinate tricks that neither of two dolphins had previously performed.
There was an elephant that knew where an animal hospital was despite having had never been, it had been around elephants that had been however, so the assumption is that the location and activities there had been communicated.
These are just a few examples, there are many more instances where animals have been observed doing more than just labeling things with sound. This is actually why this community exists.