animals and human language ANIMALS AND HUMAN LANGUAGE | Page 8

Communication
We should first distinguish between specifically
communicative signals and those
which may be unintentionally informative signals.
Someone listening to you may
become informed about you through a number of
signals that you have not intentionally
sent. She may note that you have a cold (you
sneezed), that you aren’t at ease (you shifted
around in your seat), that you are disorganized (non-
matching socks) and that you are
from somewhere else (you have a strange accent).
However, when you use language to
tell this person, I’m one of the applicants for the
vacant position of senior brain surgeon at
the hospital, you are normally considered to be
intentionally communicating something.