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Anyone who owns a pet is familiar with the range of communication possible between animals and
humans. A cat, for example, makes noises to indicate it’s hungry, injured, scared, contented, or
playful, and if the owner calls its name, it usually comes, even from a distance. Cats signal each
other vocally – they hiss to threaten intruders; they wail when seeking a mate. But to what extent is
their communication a form of language similar to our own?

Myths and legends in all cultures contain stories with

speaking animals, so presumably people once believed
animals possessed language. The power and wisdom of
animals were also a significant component, and in English
today, we still describe someone as ‘a wise old owl’. But were
these tales merely indirect ways of teaching moral concepts?
Perhaps once it was considered easier to learn from a bear
stung by bees while stealing honey that theft is antisocial, or
from a tortoise who says: ‘I shall win this race with the hare!’
that being slow but determined results in success. However,
because human relationships with animals have diminished
due to today’s highly urbanised culture, our overall interest in
them has dwindled.

For thousands of years, people have recognised that parrots can speak, or more precisely, that
they reproduce words and phrases taught to them. Likewise, mynah birds are mimics and can
produce around 200 different sounds, ranging from the songs of other birds to the ring tones of
mobile phones. Yet none of this confirms that birds understand the sounds they make since
vocalisation does not define language. Moreover, deaf people communicate effectively without
vocalisation through signing, and all humans react to body language.

In the 1970s, ornithologists thoroughly researched the sounds birds make to each other. Birdcalls
(one or more short notes) provide information to other birds of the same species concerning the
immediate environment; whether danger is present; whether it’s time to return to the nest for food;
or, whether it’s time to depart together in a flock. Birdsong (longer, more complex note patterns)
claims territory and attracts mates, but research into many bird species has demonstrated that a
bird may sing the notes of its song in any order, suggesting that the individual notes lack particular
meaning. By contrast, consider the sentences: ‘The boy killed the dog,’ and ‘The dog killed the
boy,’ –clearly different, and clearly proof of an underlying grammatical system. Secondly, the pitch
of the notes in birdsong is the only indicator of what a bird feels about its territory. A higher-pitched
song indicates: ‘I’ll defend this place or die.’ In English, prosodic features like pitch, stress, and
intonation convey some, but not the entire meaning, for as we know from automated voices on the
telephone, even with slightly strange prosody, we understand the message.

But what about animals with larger brains than birds? A dog can distinguish between the words ‘sit’
and ‘fetch’, and phrases like ‘go around the back’, and act accordingly. Show dogs, guide dogs,
and farm-working dogs have learnt more commands than others, yet the total is still not high, and
estimated to be around 30. Just as the parrot speaks because it knows it'll be fed, dogs respond to
stimuli rather than actually understanding language.

What about primates – chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, and others – who are more closely related
to humans? They certainly make numerous sounds in the wild, yet once again, their vocalisations
and gestures relate solely to their immediate environment. Unlike humans, they are unable to
hypothesise, ponder the future, or discuss the past.

There have been numerous attempts to teach primates language as we know it, yet all have
proven useless. The primary reason for this failure is that the animals do not spontaneously apply
the target language as human children do. When with a trainer, they will answer a question, but
they won't then ask the trainer a question, and in the company of other animals of their species,
they don't use or teach the language as human parents do with their children. People who find
themselves in any environment where they can't speak the language, however, will attempt to use
the new language. Secondly, primates never learn grammar. Kanzi, a male bonobo chimp,
considered one of the best non-human language users, was taught a special sign language since
chimp mouths cannot form most human sounds. Although evidently clever, Kanzi never passed the
grammatical level of a three-year-old – his language remained simple (two to three words
combined) and inflexible. Lastly, primates imitate sign language, but rarely create anything new
with it themselves. Conversely, human children, as early as 18 months old, are creative, copying
language only 40% of the time, while also generating completely new sentences from the elements
they have learnt. Even if not totally accurate, all these new sentences follow the grammatical
structure of their particular language.

Studies into the linguistic abilities of animals are far less popular now than 50 years ago, due
largely to the widely accepted theory proposed by Noam Chomsky in the 1980s. It declares that
language is innate to humans – we are all born with the capacity for it – and despite needing to be
exposed to language at a critical period in early childhood to learn it perfectly, almost all humans
everywhere have language.

Mickey Mouse may talk in cartoons; Aslan the lion may save Narnia; clever chimps may live at the
zoo, bur flexible, creative, heritable language remains a uniquely human preserve.
1 Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the passage?
Write:
YES, if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO, if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN, if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

1. A cat appears to understand when a human calls its name. yes

2. The speeches of animals in myths and legends were mainly for entertainment. no

3. Mynahs make an amazing number of different sounds. yes

4. Parrots lack the ability to combine language elements creatively. not given

5. For some birds, the order of the notes in their songs alerts other birds. no

6. It is more likely that a dog responds to the stimulus attached to language than the yes
language itself.

2 Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

primates
Like birds and small mammals, 7 ........................ only produce sounds connected to their
environment. One reason they do not learn language is they fail to use the language they have
spontaneously grammar
been taught 8 ........................ . Secondly, they do not master 9 ........................ ; their language
simple
stays 10 ........................ studies
and fixed. The number of scientific 11 ........................ into the linguistic
ability of animals has probably decreased because Chomsky's theory of the innateness of
language is 12 ......................
accepted universally.

3 Which of the following is the most suitable title for the passage?

A- Fascinating animal language

B- Effective animal communication
C- Animals make good companions.
D- Animal language- fact or fiction?
E- Language is a purely human creation.