Animal Communication Vs. Human Communication

There are a few basic properties of human language that can readily be recognized on a universal scale; these properties become apparent when we examine the purpose of language. Human language is used to externally communicate internal thoughts and ideas about our surroundings, our mood, our conscious perceptions, information about the past, information about the present, and information about the future. When we look at the rest of the animal kingdom's methods of communication, we see striking similarities but also apparent and perhaps presumed deficiencies when compared to the complexity of human communication. Within the human language there are certain intricacies that no other animal seems to be competently capable of naturally. For instance, the grammatically complex structure of the human language does not occur with in any other animal. But when we observe animal communication on its basic levels, we find that there are many similarities in the purpose for its existence when compared to human communication. For example, Vervet Monkeys use a series of alarm call to alert each other of the presence of danger. The use of these alarm calls serves as rudimentary evidence of forethought or knowledge regarding the future. Foresight is something very apparent in human communication, but it is also something difficult to identify in the rest of the animal kingdom. Within Chimpanzees there is a basic yet perceivable instance of cultural transmission. Based upon geographical location and habitat, chimpanzees show different preferences for the construction of tools, behaviors, and interaction. Cultural transmission of knowledge and preferences can be seen across the globe in humans but appears to be rare in animals. Another example of this is observable in certain bird species who have different dialects determined by geographical range. Birds who are displaced from areas where their dialect is not common are often met with hostility. While not an exact reflection of this, it might be said that humans are also prone to dialect bias in a similar way. Body language plays a major role in human communication as well as in the animal kingdom. A few instances of non verbal communications in humans can be listed as the following: hand signals, signs of aggression, signs of fear, emotions, and eye contact. When compared to animals, there are similarities and differences in these types of nonverbal communication. Unlike humans, eye contact is very often only used to convey aggression in the animal kingdoms; animals in which this is very commonly the case include: cats, dogs, and chimpanzees. When humans are placed in states of fear, recoiling and hunching down are typical reactions, and in animals this is often the typical response as well. Humans and animals parallel each other in a lot of the basics modes of communication. In rare circumstances humans and animals manage to parallel on the more complex levels. While this might not exactly prove to be the case as research on the subject expands, we appear to show complexities in the areas of language based communication that no other animal can match up to.

Dugatkin, Lee Alan. Principles of Animal Behavior. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. Print.