The Birds and the Bees

Features of a language

Hockett's design features

1. A Mode of Communication

• The means by which messages are transmitted
• Examples of different modes
  • vocal-auditory
  • tactile-visual
  • chemical-olfactory

2. Semanticity

• Signals used in communication carry meaning

3. Pragmatic Function

• The main purpose of the communication system is to communicate, and not a side effect of other functions

4. Interchangeability

• The ability for individuals to both send and receive messages
• Communication systems that don't display interchangeability:
  • Silkworm moths: only females can secrete chemicals when ready to mate

5. Cultural Transmission

• Some aspect of a communication system has to be learned (i.e. not innate or genetic)
• Animals that do not exhibit cultural transmission:
  • Fireflies
• Communication systems that exhibit some cultural transmission:
  • ​Certain bird songs
  • Chimpanzee signals

6. Arbitrariness

• Having signals that are not logically related to its meaning
  • The word cat is not related to an actual cat
• Communication systems that lack arbitrariness:
  • A dog baring its teeth, indicating that it is ready to attack

7. Discreteness

• Having complex messages made up of smaller parts
  • A sentence is made up of words, which are made up of individual sounds
• Communication systems lacking discreteness:
  • Parrots imitating human speech

8. Displacement

• The ability to communicate about things that are not present in space or time
  • Talking about the color red when we are not seeing it
  • Talking about an event in the future
• No animal communication system appears to display this feature

9. Productivity

• Open-endedness
• The ability to produce and understand messages that have never been expressed before
• All animal communication systems are fixed systems (not open-ended systems)

The birds

The European robin

Songs of the European Robin

• Complicated, with specific meanings for songs
• Rival robins only paid attention to the alternation between high-pitched and low-pitched notes
• Although the robin is creative in singing in different ways, it is unable to create different meanings by rearranging notes
  • Lack of discreetness, productivity

The bees

The honeybee

The Honeybee Dance

• Used to communicate information about a source of food
• Patterns: round, sickle, and waggle
• Round: location within twenty feet of the hive
• Sickle: 20 to 60 feet
• Waggle: More than 60 feet

Factors of a Honeybee Dance

• Round dance
  • Number of repetitions: distance
  • Vivacity: quality of the food
• Sickle dance
  • Angle: The same angle as the food is to the sun
• Waggle dance:
  • Repetitions per minute: precise distance

Why it's still not a language

• Exhibits arbitrariness
  • Vivacity and quality of food are not related
• Exhibits some signs of displacement
  • Can be used to describe food that is not present
• Does not exhibit productivity
  • Can only be used for a single subject, no creativity

Primates and

human language

Early experiments

• 1930s: Gua the chimp
  • Raised along with scientist's son
  • Experiment failed after nine months
• 1950s: Viki the chimp
  • Tried to teach Viki to speak
  • Scientists determine that chimps are not physically able to make human sounds
• 1960s: Washoe the chimp
  • Taught ASL
  • Acquired 132 signs by age five
  • Made her own word combinations, such as dirty Roger and water bird

Koko the Gorilla

• 1971-2018
• Knew several hundred signs and invented her own signs
• Understood spoken English
  • Used signs of homonyms when she could not think of the sign
• Made up insults for people and things she didn't like
  • Called Patterson a "dirty toilet devil"

Criticisms

• Noah Chomsky: claimed animals could not be taught human language
• Primates had no concept of grammar
  • Only signed separate vocabulary
  • Few utterances beyond two-word combinations
• Animals suspected to have been cued by their trainers, only imitating the trainers' signs