Linguistics..need help..hurry up!

[Green Utopia]

Hi everybody

I've been trying to answer this question and can't find a complete answer..!!


QU:Most linguists would claim that animal languages are fundamentally different from human languages.Identify three significant ways in which animal language and human language differ,and give an argument for each that supports(or denies)its status as a fundamental differences?



come on !
work hard..


Peace,
Green Utopia

[emily655321]

This kind of question has come up in the past, mostly on the Shakespeare thread. It's okay cause you're new, but it's a kind of unwritten rule that we don't provide answers for school assignments for each other. Although, if you'd like to start a thread on linguistics in general, you might think of an answer in the course of the discussion.

Good luck on your homework, Utopia. :D

[Green Utopia]

Hi funny emily655321,
Don't you understand! lol
I am not a student..I don't have homeworks..I am going to be a teacher of English after 3 months
I need the answer for my own knowledge only
yours,
Green Utopia

[subterranean]

O geez look at you.. a future English teacher but still u asked about such basic stuff :D..(j/k)

Let see....not really sure..perhaps there's no such thing as present, past or future tense in animal language...

[emily655321]

Ohhhh :D I get the question thing now. LoL.

Yeah, I would agree and elaborate on that...
Animals express abstract feelings, like sadness, sympathy and curiosity, just like we do. But theirs is limited to the present. They can say "I feel bad for you now," but they can't say "I felt bad for you yesterday." They can only communicate in regard to something that is physically present at the time.

Also, they have no language for hypothetical situations. They can't say "I would hurt myself if I jumped out of this tree." But I think they are fully capable of imagining what would happen if they did. But to communicate this concern, they have to have the tree and the situation present to communicate that it causes them fear.

I think that's the main difference between animals and people. Most things people experience, they are able to communicate to each other. They are even capable of talking about something that they don't feel personally, or the reason for which they don't understand. But animals have a lot of thoughts going on that they just aren't able to communicate, to us or to each other. I think that's why we developed as much as we have, and found ways to do pretty much anything we want to; because we are able to communicate minute specifics about what we feel and ideas for the future, et cetera, with each other. So we can cooperate and accomplish the complex ideas of one person, that one person couldn't achieve alone.

[edit] Oh, also, it depends on what kind of animal you're talking about. It isn't as if it's us versus them, with humans on one side and the entire animal kingdom on the other. Gorillas and elephants and dolphins obviously have much deeper thoughts than iguanas and geese. Also, grazing animals tend to be less intelligent/introspective than hunters, because their brains haven't needed to develop as much to survive; they just think, "Yummy, grass. Uh oh, tiger. Time to run." But the tiger has to plan his approach, pick out the best one, decide how he'll separate it from the herd, plan where to kill it and how long it will take to get there, so he can get his meat to safety before the scavengers come... way more advanced thought needed.

[subterranean]

And how do you know that animal can't express about past action?....

And I don't think that they can imagine what would happened...somehow they just move by instinct..the language of animals is their instinct and it's limited to such things...like languaage when they feel hungry, horny, threatened,or angry

[subterranean]

And oh Em...I like your sig..wish i could do that at the moment (lay down and die :D)

[emily655321]

:D :D Thanks, Sub. Have you seen the Simpsons quote thread Koa started? (Were you here for it? I don't think you were.) It took me like two or three days to remember my siggy and mention it on the thread. :D Do you get the Simpsons where you are? (Sorry, I forget where you live :p)

[emily655321]

Oh, and as for animals. I'm constantly being surprised and blown away by the depths of thought I discover in animals. Cats especially. When we got Arlo, he instantly began to shock us by just how much he was capable of learning, even as a baby. He's 8 months now, and I can't think of an example off the top of my head, but sometimes his evidence of thought processes are just uncanny. And I'm a real scientific skeptic about such things, but practically every time I read a scientific article, they've made another discovery about the way animals think and communicate.

Oh, well, an example of planning by my other cat, Stuffy: his breakfast time has always been 5am or 5:30, but he woke up about an hour earlier when he was younger. He noticed that my dad got up and fed him when his alarm clock went off, so since the age of 1 year Stuffy, if he feels it's time to eat and dad's not up, will go into the bedroom and stand on top of the alarm clock pressing buttons until it goes off. He's been doing it -- mostly during the longer-day months -- for almost five years now. I can't deny that as some pretty creative cause-and-effect thinking.

[Sancho]

You have a cat named Arlo?

- You can get anything you want, at Alice's restaurant
- 'cepting Alice
- You can get anything you want... at Alice's restaurant
- Step right in its around the back
- just a half a mile from the railroad track
- You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant
(Arlo Guthrie)

Dang, I wish I'd'a thought of that name for a cat.

[simon]

Hey Alice's resteraunt! Arlo would make a singularly good name for a cat.

[Koa]

OOOh that was a typical question for the linguistics exam I took last year, I'm damn hurried at the moment can you wait till tomorrow??? basically it's soemthing like because human language woks on 2 levels, ie morphemes and phonemes, I can't rememember much more when I have only 5 seconds to think...btw am i being too technical, or is it all right?

[IWilKikU]

There's an African Gray parrot in Indiana that can identify his toys by name. Its awsome. He like picks one up and bites is and they ask him what it is and he'll say "truck", or "key", or whatever it is. He also can identify colours, sizes and numbers up to 4. He can communicate better than most 2 year olds. In English. And I swear if you saw this tape, there's no way you could claim that he's just mimicing. He's actually speaking and thinking... In English!

My African Gray isn't as smart as this one, but there have been times when he has definately shown that he's thinking linguistically, not just mimicing words he knows.

[emily655321]

I saw that parrot on TV, Kik! I know, aren't they considered to be the most intelligent birds? I volunteered at a zoo-ish place with an African Gray for a while, and she was creepy. Not mean, but you could tell she was thinking evil thoughts about you, like if she could have rolled her eyes at you she would have. :D

[Green Utopia]

Hey ,are you having your dinner here..I'm always being late to join in you humors discussion. So may be because I am a member of another forum .so I have to shuttle between the two forums(book worm).


Subterranean ..thanx for passing by and for you lovely comments.. (There is a property of human language called"displacemen" :this property allows the users of language to talk about things or events not present in the immediate environment. Animal communication is generally considered to lack this property e.g. when your pet cat comes home after spending a night in the back alleys and stands at your feet calling meow ,you are likely to understand this message as relating to that immediate time and place. If you ask the cat where it was the night before and what it was up to, you may get the same meow response. It seems that animal communication is almost exclusively designed for this moment. It cannot effectively be used to relate events which are far removed in time and place.)
( The study of language
by George Yule)..The origins of language)
Subterranean…ha ha..see I now much about such basis stuff.



emily655321 ..good girl..now..I am happy with your wonderful answer and I can imagine how you cute cats are behaving.. by the way you got nice cat names (Arlo, Stuffy)..once I come to America ..you have to do the following:
lab top
telephone line with internet cards
bedroom
books,clothes,food..etc..lol ..I like you emily655321

Sancho..funny sig. but I think you're the big crisis(kidding)

Simon..hi

Koa.. hope you did well in that exam.
I am not in hurry take your time: we learn as we share..thanx

IWilKikU Waw what is the tape name ?
I believe you since some animals appear to imitate what humans are doing.

Thanx for passing by I do really enjoy everybody's comment whether serious or funny.


I really keep wondering how the world is a small village.

I really imagine that we are sitting together learning and enjoying ..people from all over the world from Ma, USA,the dark side of the moon(no man live in the moon.lol), Atlanta, canada,the edge of the deep green sea(is it a real place), England ,and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia...etc..I am emotional and imagenative WOW.
Away from politics and misunderstandings that the mass media has created for its benefit..
Here we do respect each others
We do make jock
We laugh ,we smile ,we enjoy, we are friends multi nationalities multi languages

As I said..
We learn as we share




yours,

Green Utopia
Seeking for knowledge is an endless process

[emily655321]

Thank you, Utopia. :D It's true, it's sometimes hard to meet up with people on here because of schedules and time zones. But we are all over the world, and some of us are on at pretty ungodly hours of the night (not me, of course ;)), so every now and then a big group happens to form. (Which can get pretty confusing on the game threads.)


Originally posted by Sancho
You have a cat named Arlo?

- You can get anything you want, at Alice's restaurant
- 'cepting Alice
- You can get anything you want... at Alice's restaurant
- Step right in its around the back
- just a half a mile from the railroad track
- You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant
(Arlo Guthrie)

Dang, I wish I'd'a thought of that name for a cat.

:D :D Yup. Sorry, I got yanked off the computer before I could include this in my last post. Anyway... I grew up on my parents' old folk records. The first time I saw the movie my jaw dropped open when they started singing the Car Car Song. I was like, "I forgot all about that!" I had to check to make sure I hadn't gone back in time and was three again. :D

(Stuffy's name, incidentally, is Harpo Marx's character name in A Day at the Races. Best. Marx
Brother. Ever. :D)

[Sancho]

"I want you to go over there and sit on that bench labeled 'Group W'"

[emily655321]

MEANEST UGLIEST NASTIEST FATHER RAPER: What'd you get, kid?

ARLO: I didn't get nothing. I had to pay $50 and pick up the garbage.

:D

[Koa]

Originally posted by Green Utopia


Koa.. hope you did well in that exam.
I am not in hurry take your time: we learn as we share..thanx

[/B]

Yes thanks, I got the best mark :D:D:D

*dives into the cupoboard and comes back with notebook and book not to misquote things*

Ok, I like the way all the people are coming out with their nice thoughts, but being my brain less original, and spoilt by the technical knowledge of the matter I had to briefly study last year, I'll come out with the point of view of the Linguistics as a science (also because that was mentioned on the original question)...and bore you all!

Ok, there's a property of the human language only, called double articolation according to my teacher, or dualism for some English linguistics, particularly referring to some guy called John Lyons whose book I have in fron of me right now.

This means that every word can be divided into smaller parts, that still have a meaning and can be used to form other words...
example: SIN SINNER SIN FUL ---> they all use the same root... (what an example I found :D)
These are called morphemes
These morphemes can also be divided, into smaller units that don't have a own meaning...these are the phonemes---> S, I, N, I'd say they're the 'sounds', or for me even the 'letters' (though not in English); but this might be confusing since in Green Utopia's native language it might be very different.
These charateristics make it possible for the human language to form a possibly endless number of words with a limited number of elements.

So this appears to be a property that distinguishes HUMAN language from the animal one... I guess it's because animals don't seem to have the morphemes and structure them in this way... It gives a lot to think about, but this appears to be the scientific point of view...

[emily655321]

Or, you might say that the phonemes are an addition to the human language that has become one of the only socially acceptible forms. There was a time before we created such a system for ourselves, when we conversed only in emotive sounds and gestures the way animals do. I would imagine at one point it was half-and-half, when there were nouns and verbs, but we'd still make random noises to communicate emotion. So we're capable of using other sounds to converse, but we'd get stared at if we tried to use them with other people. :D

[Sancho]

Originally posted by Green Utopia

Sancho..funny sig. but I think you're the big crisis(kidding)

Green Utopia
Seeking for knowledge is an endless process [/B]

Right you are, my friend.
Right you are.

Your siggy, by the way, is a perfect philosophy. Thankyou!

[Green Utopia]

Hi everybody

Thanks for your cooperation..especially.. emily655321 and Koa


THERE IS BIG WORK TO DO AND THERE IS LESSER TO DO . AND THE TASK WE MUST DO IS THE NEAR..
YOURS,
GREEN UTOPIA

[emily655321]

You're welcome. :D Any time. It was a really interesting topic.