Chapter 2.
DESCRIPTION
REFLECTIONS ON EACH TOPIC
These chapter I learn about that Animals communicate by using a
variety of signs such as sounds or movements. Such signing may be
There are a lot of stories about creatures that can talk. We usually assume
considered complex enough to be called a form of language if the
that they are fantasy or fiction or that they involve birds or animals simply
imitating something they have heard humans say (as Terrence Deacon
discovered was the case with the loud seal in Boston Aquarium). Yet we
think that creatures are capable of communicating, certainly with other
inventory of signs is large, the signs are relatively arbitrary, and the
animals seem to produce them with a degree of volition, as opposed
to relatively automatic conditioned behaviors or unconditioned
members of their own species. Is it possible that a creature could learn to
communicate with humans using language.
We should first distinguish between specifically communicative signals
and those which may be unintentionally informative signals.
instincts, usually including facial expressions.