Track 5

Unit 9

Linguistics

Animal Communication

Page 88

Talk about the topic

Parts A and B

So, here’s the lecture in a nutshell, animal’s communicate.

And they share some communication characteristics with us. But, animal communication is less developed. Is that what every one else got from this lecture?

Pretty much.

Well, I agree that’s what he said but personally I think animal communication is a lot more sophisticated than we understand.

How is so? You really think it’s as sophisticated as human communication?

In some ways, yeah. I mean, I saw this documentary about monkeys the give signals for, you know, birds, snakes, other animals, depending on what they see.

Yeah, but remember that’s not using, what was it? Arbitrariness. And it’s not using displacement. Those are very clear and very present signals, right?

What is a meerkat, by the way?

It’s a kind of little monkey or a kind of like a cat, really. Looks like a raccoon to me, lives in Africa.

So even though animal communication is kind of sophisticated, there seem to be very few examples of complex communication. Human communication is usually really complex, right?

Yeah, like when you seem to be saying different things and therefore send mixed signals.

Or when you’re being very indirect and the other person has to read between the lines.

Or what about when people are being like passive aggressive and saying one thing but really meaning something else?

It’s like sending mixed signals and happen to read between the lines.