English

Teacher: Mr. Matthew Allsopp

Human & Animals Languages

Word count: 768 words

By: Mind 1007

Contents
Introduction

Page 1

Chapter 1 - Animals Languages

Page 1

Chapter 2 - Human Language

Page 2

Conclusion

Page 2

Introduction
All animals have their own ways to communicate although some animals are more complex
than others. Animals language are commonly define as system of communication that
demonstrates similarities to human language, but there are some specific differences. Animals,
including humans, might use one of these ways to communicate, which are signs, sounds, smells
and body languages.

Chapter 1 Animals Languages

Many animals communicate by smell such as bees, wasps, ants, moths, and dogs. They
use the smell to mark their land boundaries, to tell their readiness to mate, to warn off intruders
and predators or, in some cases, to attract prey. For some animals, they use pheromones as a
communication. Pheromone means a chemical substance that produced by animals and
affecting their behavior or physiology of others of its species. Females usually release the
pheromones to attract males, when the mating season come. However, for some animals that
have bad scent, they use different ways to communicate. For example, birds use to sing a song
to each other as same as a whale, bees use to dance to transmit information about their location,
and gorillas stick out their tongues to show anger. This are the different ways that animals use to
communicate, but humans dont use to do.
On the other hand, there are also the similarity between animals and human language.
According to Morell (2014):
study reveals that the calls of animals contain more language like characteristics than
previously believed. Scientists reached this conclusion after analyzing the vocal
sequences of seven species of birds and mammals, from Carolina chickadees to bats
and orangutans. They found that animal vocalizations must be generated by complex
statistical processes, making them more similar to human language (para.1)
Most of animals that use sound to communicate like humans are mammals. Among
mammals, small animals squeak and large animals rumble. Do you know why this happen?
The reason is the smaller the animal's head, the higher the frequency of sound it can
receive and transmit. Another one is touch, animals use to touch each other to greet or
communicate their feeling to each other in their species. Apes and monkeys will also hug
and 'kiss' on meeting, although in certain species of monkey the visiting or newly arrived
monkey will place its hand in the mouth of the monkey it is greeting. (Kromer, n.d, para. 3)

Chapter 2 Human Languages

Language seem to be hard to define, when it links with animals communication. There is
one definition that explain by Rousseau, a philosopher, said Language flows from emotions.
(Bever, Montalbetti Nov 2002) There is another definition from Herder, a philosopher, argued
language is a special expression of human rationality. (Bever, Montalbetti Nov 2002) But, both
of them believe that language is only use by high intelligences such as humans. Humans use
language to communicate to each other every day and everywhere.
As you see, language separates humans from other animals, since it can tell where we
come from and what kind of social we live in. Also, you will notice that animals communication
using different structures of communication systems from chapter 1. However, there are no
creativity and flexibility in their communication. It is not complex as human language as well. In
addition, complex languages that we use make us special and unique. According to Matthews,
Comrie, and Polinsky (1996):
Language is perhaps the most important single characteristic that distinguishes human
beings from other animal species. . . . Because of the different structure of the vocal
apparatus in humans and chimpanzees, it is not possible for chimpanzees to imitate the
sounds of human language, so they have been taught to use gestures or tokens in place of
sounds . . . but chimpanzees never attain a level of linguistic complexity beyond the
approximate level of a two-year-old child. (pg. 10)
What are the similarities between animals and humans communication? We both use
signals and symbols. Signals are gestures or sounds that have some meaning to people who
using them. For example, we will scream when we are in danger like animals that roar or growl to
response to danger around them. Symbols are gestures or sounds that have specific meaning to
a group of people. When we have best friends, sometimes we will create secret words or
handshake to talk about something, for instance.

Conclusion
In conclusion, all of animals have their own ways to communicate with others. However,
there is going to be one way that is similar to other species. But, human is a special species that
have complex ways to communicate by using languages. After all, animals and humans
communication are connect to each other in some ways.