Animal Language

Some people say that human beings are the only animals that have language.

Is this true 

Some animals certainly seem to have a communication system. For example

The bee has ways of telling other bees about food.

The dolphin a kind of fish, has ways of giving information to other dolphins.

The monkey, an animal that is similar to humans in many ways, can use a human language sytetem.

However

Does this mean animals  have language?

We will study each of these animals to try to answer this question.

Bees are very small animals which fly through the air to look for flowers for food.

Been have been studied by Karl von Frish who was a Nobel  Prize for his work.

He studied bees’ activities when they returned to their home called a hive.

When a bee found some food it returned to the hive and danced.

The dance was the way the bee communicated to other bees the fact that it had found food.

Bees do two kinds of dances to tell other bees of their discovery of food.

 First, there is a round dance. In this dance, the bee moves in a circle inside the hive.

The round dance is used when food is close by. The bees also smell the bee that has found the round dance and smelling the bee that has found the food the other bees can find the food source.  

 A second kind of dance done by the bees is a tail- wagging dance. In this dance, the bee wiggles the end of its body as it moves in a straight line the tail- wagging dance is used when the food is for away the bees’ communication system is extremely interesting.

  Karl von frish did an experiment with bees He put a food source very high above the bee hive, and put a bee into the food.

The bee returned to the hive and did the round dance but none of the other bees could find the food this suggests that bees do not really have a language. One bee could not tell the other bees the height of the food. One bee could not communicate this new information to the others.

 The dolphins, has three kinds of call or noises to tell other dolphins about food danger or their things.  

Monkeys are very intelligent and similar to humans. Because of this similarity some scientists in the late 1940’s tried to teach a monkey named VIKI to talk.

After a year, VIKI  could, only say a few words.

Part of the problem with this experiment is monkeys do not have the some kind of mouth and throat as humans experiment with Viki did not work well.

In the mid- 1960’s other scientists tried to teach a monkey named Washoe to use a sign language. In a sign language, words are not spoken. Instead, signs are made with the hands. Many people who cannot speak or hear use this sign language.

After two years, Washoe could make thirty four signs with her hands for example, she could put three fingers next to her ear as a signs for her name Washoe. She could also use the signs for “came here” she could also do two other things

First, she combined signs to make sentences. 

Second, she used one sign for all things of one kind, generalizing her use of the sign.    

 A third group of scientist have been working with a monkey named LANA in the past few years.

Lana is being studied at the Yerkes primate Research center in the United States the scents who are working with Lana are studying her ability to make sentences. She makes sentences by pressing symbols on a computer board

Lana may ask computer to give her food, water or toys, Lana has learned to use the nearly 100 symbols on the computer board Lana has also show that different word order have different  meanings for her.     

 These experiment are interesting because they tell us more about animals. They are also interesting because they may help us learn language. They system used teach Washoe has helped some humans to learn language

Exercise comprehension

1)Describe the bees’ communication in general.

2)Explain the different between the bee’ round dance and their tail-wagging dance.

3)How are the two dances similar?

4)Describe von fresh's experiment with the bees.

5)Why have dolphins been studied by scientists?

6)What special abilities did Washoe have? 

7)Describe the work that has been done with Lana.

8)Give two definitions of language.

9)Have humans been helped by animal language experiments? How?