The Similarities and Differences between Animal

and Human Communication

A Fourth-Year Research Project Submitted to the

Department of English, College of Languages at the
University of Salahaddin-Erbil for the Requirements for
B.A. in English Language and Literature

By:
Muntaha Nuri Issa

Supervised by:
Asst. Lect. Alaa Nawzad Awla

Erbil-KURDISTAN
April, 2023
 Table of Contents
Abstract……………………………………………………………....................
…III
Section One: An Introduction to Human Language…………...…....1
1.1 What is Language?.............................................................
1.2 What is Communication?............................................
1.3 What are the Properties of Human Communication?....................
1.3.1 Arbitrariness………
1.3.2 Displacement……….
1.3.3 Productivity……………..
1.3.4 Duality……………………………….
1.3.5 Cultural Transmission………..
1.3.6 Discreteness………………………………………….
1.4 Functions of Communication ……………………….
1.4.1 Informational Function……………………
1.4.2 Phatic Function…………………..
1.4.3 Emotive Function……………………………………
1.4.4 Expressive Function…………………
1.4.5 Directive Function……………………………….
1.4.6 Aesthetic Function…………………..
1.5 The Innateness Hypothesis……………………………..
Section Two: An Introduction to Animal Communication………
2.1 What is Animal Communication ?..................................................
2.2 What are the Properties of Animal Communication ?...................
2.3 Animals and Communication ……………………
2.3.1 Chimpanzees and Communication …………………….
2.3.2 Washoe………………
2.3.3 Sarah and Lana…………………………..
2.3.4 Kanzi………………………..
2.4 Using Communication: The Controversy…..
Section Three: The Comparison between Human and Animal
Languages……….
3.1 The Similarities between Human Language and Animal
Communication……
3.2 The Difference between Human language and Animal Communication…
Conclusion………………
List of References………………
 Abstract

This paper is about the “Similarities and Differences between Animal and
Human Communication”. The research defines language in general that is a set
of rules, unconsciously present in the mind, which enables human beings to
represent and communicate meanings by producing audible, visible, or tactile
symbols that these rules systematically relate to those meanings. It also defines
communication, which is the process where people create and share a number of
their thoughts, views, information, feelings, facts, etc. This practice is
fundamental to the existence and survival of human beings now.
Also, this paper discusses the similarities and differences between human
and animal communication systems. According to the similarities, some animals
just like human being can communicate to each other but they cannot speak like
humans in many different ways, while regarding the differences they are different
in many parts such as, in arbitrariness, productivity, duality, and etc.
 Section One

1.1 What is Language?

Language is a set of rules, unconsciously present in the mind, which enables

human beings to represent and communicate meanings by producing audible,
visible, or tactile symbols that these rules systematically relate to those meanings.
A language enables its users to communicate meanings by systematically relating
perceptible actions and meanings (Garvey, 2006, p.40).

1.2 What is Communication?

Communication is the process where people create and share a number of

their thoughts, views, information, feelings, facts, etc. This practice is
fundamental to the existence and survival of human beings now. It is the key to
make sure that people properly comprehend and understand each other Human
beings communicate because they have to communicate. Sounds confusing! Well,
communication is a basic human urge. We have very strong need to communicate.
Communication among human beings could be plain information sharing. It could
be sharing of feelings (Kumar, 2012, pp.33-34).

1.3 What are the Properties of Human Language?

While we tend to think of communication as the primary function of human

language, it is not a distinguishing feature. We suspect that other creatures are not
reflecting on the way they create their communicative message or reviewing how
they work or not. We can use language to think and talk about language itself,
making it one of the distinguishing features of human language without this
general ability, we would not be able to reflect on or identify any of the other
distinct properties of human language (Aitchison, 2008, p.30).
1.3.1 Arbitrariness

It generally the case that there is no natural connection between a linguistic

form and its meaning .The connection is quite arbitrary We cannot just look at the
Arabic word ‫ ك ل ب‬and, from its shape, for example, determine that it has a
natural and obvious meaning any more than we can with its English translation
form dog. The linguistic form has no natural or iconic relationship with that hairy
four -legged barking object out in the world. This aspect of the relationship
between linguistic signs and objects in the world is described as arbitrariness
(Yule, 2006, p.32).

1.3.2 Displacement

Human language can communicate about things that are absent as easily as
about things that are present. This is the capability of a language, and actually, all
languages, to refer to different timeframes. When we are having a conversation
we may talk about something that happened yesterday, years ago, that may occur
soon, etc. This is well brought up in the passage as the whole story takes place in
the past. We see the use of verbs in the past tense, along with expressions such as
“once upon a time”, “one morning” and indicating the girl coming in the house at
a time that the bears were out. We also notice the use of time related adverbs like
“then”, “when”, “while” and “again’ (Pasi, 2020, p.6).

1.3.3 Creativity

Language has its efficiency and innovativeness. The auxiliary components

of human language are joined to create new expressions that neither the speaker
nor their listeners may have made or heard previously. Honestly, the two sides
comprehend without trouble. Language can be changed as indicated by the
necessities of human society. After all, language has the power of productivity
and creativity (Hakim, 2018, p.7).
1.3.4 Duality

Duality is the use of a small number of meaningless elements in

combination to produce a large number of meaningful elements (Trask, 2003,
pp. 2-3). Each language has a stock of sound units or phonemes which are similar
in number to the basic sounds the average number is between thirty and forty. But
each phoneme is normally meaningless in isolation. It becomes meaningful only
when it is combined with other phoneme. That is, sounds such as f, g, d, o, mean
nothing separately. They normally take on meaning only when they are combined
together in various ways, as in fog, dog and god (Aitchison, 2003, p.15).

1.3.5 Cultural Transmission

This process whereby a language is passed on from one generation to the

next is described as cultural transmission. It is clear that humans are born with
some kind of predisposition to acquire language in a general sense. However, we
are not born with the ability to produce utterances in a specific language such as
English. We acquire our first language as children in a culture. A Chinese baby
brought as a toddler in Great Britain and raised by a British family is going to
speak English and not Chinese, though it will still look like a Chinese (Yule, 2017,
p.34).

1.3.6 Discreteness

The sounds used in language are meaningfully distinct. Each sound is treated
as a discrete unit, and the occurrence of one sound instead of the other leads to a
misuse of language. For example, /p/ and /b/ sounds in a sentence like: “can I park
here” the use of the sound /b/ instead of /p/ is a wrong use of language (Aitchison,
2003, p.22).
1.4 Functions of Language

Generally, language functions as a tool of communication as Nababan

(1991, p.38) states. Furthermore language functions are used to express the
purpose or aim of speaking by adapting the situation and place. Language
functions as “the use to which language is put, the purpose of an utterance rather
than the particular grammatical form an utterance takes”. People use language in
order forto fulfil that purpose. Each purpose can be known as a language function.

1.4.1 Information Function

The Informative Function is the core of the informative function of language

about external situation, scientific and knowledge based writing the function of
language can be characterized as informative. These texts are intended to convey
the truth and to keep their readers well informed. The style is mostly technical and
non-emotive, textbooks, reports, research reports, academic articles, and scientific
literature (Halliday, 2003, p.12).

1.4.2 Phatic Function

The phatic function is used to establish a social connection without really

communicating any meaningful information. This type of language is used to start
or stop a conversation or to check the connection between the sender and receiver.
For example: How: are you?” “I’m fine.” “See you later” (Jakobson, 1941, p.34).

1.4.3 Emotive Function

The Emotive Function is when you don't speak to convey information, but to
express your feelings. Then you communicate for yourself more than for the
people who may (or may not) hear you. Also called expressive, this function helps
us to interpret emotions, feelings, desires, and moods of the subject. The emotive
function gives us direct information about the sender’s tone. For example: I’m
excited about the new car I bought!

1.4.3 Expressive Function

Hello Verbal communication helps us meet various needs through our

ability to express ourselves. In terms of instrumental needs, we use verbal
communication to ask questions that provide us with specific information. We
also use verbal communication to describe things, people, and ideas. Verbal
communication helps us inform, persuade, and entertain others, which as we will
learn later are the three general purposes of public speaking. (McKay, Davis, &
Fanning, 1995).

1.4.4 Directive Function

The Directive Function enables us to attempting the influence the actions of

others; accepting or refusing direction .Directive Function is used to garner a
response or action ,usually from another person .Commands and questions are
forms of directive language ,for example a mother telling her son to “Shut the
door (Halliday,1983, p.107).

1.4.6 Aesthetics Function

The aesthetic function is the language designed to please our sense and
appeal to our attitudes through sounds, religions metaphor, similes,
onomatopoeia, alliteration, meter, and rhyme. Intend to serve this function of
language. Poetry, nursery rhymes, advertising material uses this kind of language.
The aesthetic function occupies an important position in the life of individual and
of society as a whole. The number of people who come into direct contact with
art is, however, quit restrict, both by the comparative rarity of aesthetics talent
which is sometimes focus on particular areas in art and by the obstacles of social
stratification (Mukarovsky, 2007, p.1).
1.4 The Innateness Hypothesis

Grammar is a mental system that allows people to form and interpret both
familiar and novel utterances (O’Grady et al., 2011, p.). After a child reaches
eighteen months of age, a grammar begins to emerge in his or her language, when
that happens, the child rapidly acquires most of the grammatical rules and
syntactic structure without any help but from the language they are exposed to in
their environment. For example, the language learning process it is too complex
to be obtained through imitation nor are children very successful at imitating
sentences that contain novel words or sentences (O’Grady, 2008, p.167).
 Section Two

2.1 What is Animal Language?

The animal language refers to the methods and systems animals use to
communicate with each other belonging to the same species or to transmit signals
to the animals belong to other species or to humans. It is accepted axiomatically
that animals use some sort of communication among themselves which is largely
dissimilar to the human system involving language (Niladri and Dash, 2017, p.8).

2.2 What are the Properties of Animal Language?

Human Language has some properties that make it different from animal
communication system. Animals cannot understand human language, so it is less
likely they can produce human language.

2.3 Animals and Language

Many animals automatically know how to communicate without learning.

Their systems of communication are genetically inbuilt. Bee-dancing, for
example, is substantially the same in bee colonies in different parts of the world,
with only small variations. Even in cases where an element of learning is
involved, this is usually minor. In one experiment a chaffinch reared in a
soundproof room away from other chaffinches developed an abnormal type of
song. Yet when the bird was exposed to only occasional tape recordings of other
chaffinches, its song developed normally (Aitchison, 2003, pp.14-15).

2.3.1 Chimpanzees and Language

The idea of raising a chimp and a child together may seem like a
nightmare, but this is basically what was done in an early attempt to
teach a chimpanzee to use human language. In the 1930s, two scientists
(Luella and Winthrop Kellogg) reported on their experience of raising
an infant chimpanzee together with their baby son. The chim- panzee,
called Gua, was reported to be able to understand about a hundred
words, but did not “say” any of them. In the 1940s, a chimpanzee named
Viki was reared by another scientist couple (Catherine and Keith Hayes)
in their own home, exactly as if she was a human child. These foster
parents spent five years attempting to get Viki to “say” English words
by trying to shape her mouth as she produced sounds (Yule, 2006, p.36).

2.3.2 Washoe

Recognizing that a chimpanzee was a poor candidate for spoken language

learning, another scientist couple (Beatrix and Allen Gardner) set out to teach a
female chim- panzee called Washoe to use a version of American Sign Language.
From the beginning, the Gardners and their research assistants raised Washoe like
a human child in a comfortable domestic environment. Sign language was always
used when Washoe was around and she was encouraged to use signs, even her
own incomplete “baby-versions” of the signs used by adults. In a period of three
and a half years, Washoe came to use signs for more than a hundred words,
ranging from airplane, baby and banana through to window, woman and you
(Yule, 2006, p.36).

2.3.3 Sarah and Lana

At the same time as Washoe was learning sign language, another

chimpanzee was being taught (by Ann and David Premack) to use a set of plastic
shapes for the purpose of communicating with humans. These plastic shapes
represented “words” that could be arranged in sequence to build “sentences”
(Sarah preferred a vertical order). The basic approach was quite different from
that of the Gardners. Sarah was systematically trained to associate these shapes
with objects or actions. She remained an animal in a cage, being trained with food
rewards to manipulate a set of symbols Sarah was also capable of producing
“sentences” such as Mary give chocolate Sarah and had the impressive capacity
to understand complex structures such as If Sarah put red on green, Mary give
Sarah chocolate. Sarah got the chocolate (Yule, 2006, p.37).

2.3.4 Kanzi

In a more recent set of studies, an interesting development relevant to this

controversy came about almost by accident. While Sue Savage-Rumbaugh was
attempting to train a bonobo (a pygmy chimpanzee) called Matata how to use the
symbols of Yerkish, Matata’s adopted baby, Kanzi, was always with her.
Although Matata did not do very well, her son Kanzi spontaneously started using
the symbol system with great ease. He had learned not by being taught, but by
being exposed to, and observing, a kind of language in use at a very early age.
Kanzi eventually developed a large symbol vocabulary (over 250 forms) (Yule,
2006, p.39).

2.4 Using Language: The Controversy

On the basis of his work with another chimpanzee called Nim, the
psychologist Herbert Terrace argued that chimpanzees simply produce signs in
response to the demands of people and tend to repeat signs those people use, yet
they are treated (by naive researchers) as if they are taking part in a
“conversation.” As in many critical studies of animal learning, the chimpanzees’
behavior is viewed as a type of conditioned response to cues provided (often
unwittingly) by human trainers. Herbert’s conclusion was that chimpanzees are
clever 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. In response, the Gardners argued that they were not animal
trainers, nor were they inculcating and then eliciting conditioned responses from
Washoe. In complex-experiments, designed to eliminate any possible provision
of cues by humans, they showed that in the absence of any human, Washoe could
produce correct signs to identify objects in pictures (Yule, 2006, p.38).
 Section three

3.1 The Similarities between Human Language and Animal

Communication

The greatest similarity between human and animal communication is

through the use of sound. Humans convey emotion through the use of words and
tone in much the same way as animals communicate emotion through sound.
According to an article from Mesa College, scientists have observed wild vervet
monkeys use three distinct alarm calls depending on the type of predator they are
warning against. When another vervet monkey hears the call, they know exactly
what kind of danger is present. Some baby vervets were observed using the alarm
cry for an eagle whenever any bird few overhead, but quickly learned to only use
that particular cry when an actual eagle was spotted. This is similar to a child
learning to call only one person mama, instead of every female, according to the
article.
This is true of all languages in the world, which are remarkably similar in
their main design features. There is no evidence that any language is more
‘primitive’ than any other. There are certainly primitive cultures. A
primitive culture is reflected in the vocabulary of a language, which might lack
words common in advanced societies. But even the most primitive tribes have
languages whose underlying structure is every bit as complex as English or
Russian or Chinese. But one other similarity links human language with animal
communication: it is predestined to emerge. Just as frogs inevitably croak, and
cows moo, so humans are prearranged for talking (Aitchison, 2003, pp. 21-22).

3.2 The Difference between Human language and Animal

Communication

Human language is a signaling system which uses sounds, a characteristic

shared by a large number of animal systems. In animal communication, there is
frequently a connection between the signal and the message sent, and the system
is mainly genetically inbuilt. In human language, the symbols are mostly arbitrary,
and the system has to be painstakingly transmitted from one generation to another.
Duality and displacement the organization of language into two layers, and the
ability to talk about absent objects and events are extremely rare in the animal
world. No animal communication system has both these features. Creativity, the
ability to produce novel utterances, seems not to be present in any natural
communication system possessed by animals. Finally, patterning and structure
dependence may also be unique language features. To summarize: language is a
patterned system of arbitrary sound signals, characterized by structure
dependence, creativity, displacement, duality and cultural transmission
(Aitchison, 2003, pp. 21-22).
Human language is innately guided. Human infants are not born speaking,
but they know how to acquire any language to which they are exposed. They are
drawn towards the noises coming out of human mouths, and they instinctively
know how to analyze speech sounds. Bees present a parallel case: they are not
born equipped with an inbuilt encyclopedia of flowers. Instead, they are
preprogrammed to pay attention to important flower characteristics especially
scent. So they quickly learn how to recognize nectar-filled blooms, and do not
waste time flying to kites or bus stops (Aitchison, 2003, pp. 21-22).
 Conclusion
Communication is the process of exchanging or sharing ideas, thoughts,
information and etc among people. Human language is entirely different from
animal communication. Human language has many properties which makes it
different from animal communication. Human language has alphabets which help
man to write down and, preserve ideas for coming generations. Animal
communication is context bound, they cannot communicate any experience of
past. Animal communication is biologically transmitted thus it cannot learn any
other languages. Human and non-human communication have been investigated
from a great variety of perspectives within science, and very few disciplines seem
to agree on a definition of language.
Systems of communication are not unique to human beings. Other animal
species communicate in a variety of ways. One way is by sound: a bird may
communicate by a call that a territory is his and should not be encroached upon.
human language differs because it has form and meaning, which means it has a
structure which combines sounds, gestures, letters, and written words which when
put together have a certain significance or meaning.
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