Communication and Language,
try #2: The Birds and the Bees
September 14, 2012
Questions
1.  What’s the difference between language and
communication?
2.  How do we know that animals don’t have language?
3.  Can animals acquire language if we try to teach it to
them?
“Design Features” of Language
•  Defined by the linguist Charles Hockett (1916-2000)
From a 1966 article:
“The design features listed
below are found in every
language on which we have
reliable information, and each
seems to be lacking in at
least one known animal
communicative system.”
“Design Features” of Language
•  All communication systems have the following features:
1.  A mode of communication (a medium)
•  Audio-visual for most humans
•  Visual-spatial for sign language users
•  Chemical-olfactory for some plants and animals
•  Electric current for telephones, computers, etc.
2. Semanticity
•  Communication signals have meaning
“Design Features” of Language
•  Some communication systems have the following
features:
3. Interchangeability
•  Participants can be transmitters and receivers.
4. Cultural Transmission
•  System gets passed along through interaction with
users of the system.
•  “Tradition”
•  IMPORTANT: People are not genetically pre-disposed to
learn a particular language.
Cultural Transmission in Birds
The Ortolan Bunting (found in
Germany) exhibits various
regional song dialects.
http://www.bavarianbirds.de/ortolan/ortolan.htm
“Design Features” of Language
5. Arbitrariness
–  No logical relationship between signals
(signs) and what they represent (their
meaning)
Sign
“tree”
“Baum”
“arbre”
Meaning
Iconicity
•  Arbitrary signs may be contrasted with iconic signs
•  …which bear some resemblance to whatever it is
that they signify.
•  Examples:
•  Note: sign languages tend to be highly iconic
•  although they can display abritrariness, too.
“Design Features” of Language
Onomatopoeia: iconic language signals
Signal Form
English “cock-a-doodle-doo”
French “cocorico”
Mandarin “kukuku”
Meaning
Note: still an element of arbitrariness in signal form
The Kiki/Bouba Experiment
•  Originally devised by psychologist Wolfgang Köhler in
1927.
•  Updated and replicated in 2001.
•  Look at these two figures:
•  Which one is bouba and which one is kiki?
•  ~95% of both English and Tamil speakers thought the
shape on the left was “kiki”, the one the right “bouba”
A Different Experiment
•  Take a look at these three pictures:
•  Now match them up with the vowels “ah”, “ee”, and “oo”.
•  How’d you do that?
Sound Symbolism
•  The association between sounds and particular
qualities is known as sound symbolism.
•  E.g., particular vowels are associated with small things:
•  “teeny weeny”, “mini”, “wee”, “petite”
•  Let’s try another. We’ll learn about two groups of
sounds in this class:
•  Group 1: p, t, k
•  Group 2: f, s, “sh” (as in “shy”)
•  Which of these groups has “hard” sounds, and which
group has “soft” sounds?
“Design Features” of Language
6. Discreteness: messages can be built up out of
smaller parts
“Human beings have language.”
human
being
beings
have
language
-s
[h]
[æ]
[v]
“Design Features” of Language
6. Discreteness: messages can be built up out of
smaller parts
“Alien beings have language.”
alien
beings
being
have
language
-s
[h]
[æ]
[v]
“Design Features” of Language
6. Discreteness: messages can be built up out of
smaller parts
“Alien beings have spaceships.”
alien
beings
being
have
spaceships
-s
[h]
[æ]
[v]
“Design Features” of Language
•  The following features are crucial properties of human
language:
7. Displacement
•  The ability to communicate about things that are not
present in space and time.
8. Productivity (Creativity)
•  The ability to produce and understand messages that
have never been expressed before.
•  New expressions, with new meanings, are constantly
coming into existence.
“Design Features” of Language
9. Another crucial feature: Duality of Patterning
(1) A large number of meaningful messages are made up
of (2) a small number of meaningless elements
For example:
meaningful: “have”
meaningless: [h] [æ] [v]
“Design Features” of Language
10. Prevarication
•  Messages can be false, deceptive or meaningless
11.  Reflexiveness
•  In language, one can communicate about
communication.
12. Learnability
•  A speaker of a language can learn another language.
Sound files from: http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/media/vervetcalls.html
Animal Communication Systems
• Vervet Monkeys
-specific calls for specific predators
-loud bark = “leopard”
→ get into a tree
-interrupted snort = “eagle”
→ take cover under a bush
-whirring noise = “snake”
→ look at the grass
Vervet Action Movie
•  Which animal is threatening the vervets?
• Do the vervets have language?
Movie file from: http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/media/
vervetcalls.html
The Bees
•  Honeybees have one of the most complex systems of
communication found in the animal world.
•  They “dance” to indicate the presence of food
sources in the vicinity of their hives.
•  The dances take one of three forms:
•  1. Round Dance
•  For food sources up to 20 feet away.
•  Intensity indicates quality of source.
The Bees, part 2
2. The Sickle Dance
•  Food source from 20 to 60 feet away.
•  Intensity indicates quality of source.
•  Angle with vertical represents angle of source with
respect to sun.
The Bees, part 3
•  The Tail-Wagging Dance
•  For food sources more than 60 feet away.
•  Also indicates quality and direction
•  Slower rate of repetition = longer distance
Bees dancing on the web
•  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/dances.html
•  You be the bee:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/dancesbees1.html
•  Is the bees’ form of communication language?
•  Which of the “design features” does it exhibit?