Book contents
- Language Rules!
- Language Rules!
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Table
- Foreword
- Prologue
- 1 The Fallacy of Flat Language
- 2 Language Rules Are Not Linear
- 3 Beyond English
- 4 The “Unsolvable” Puzzle
- 5 The Riddle of “DL”
- 6 Sign Languages
- 7 Chunking in Action
- 8 Is Language Innate?
- 9 Language in the Genes
- 10 How Animals Communicate
- 11 Can Apes Learn Language?
- 12 Back to Humans: Language Teaching
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Glossary
- Index
10 - How Animals Communicate
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2026
Book contents
- Language Rules!
- Language Rules!
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Table
- Foreword
- Prologue
- 1 The Fallacy of Flat Language
- 2 Language Rules Are Not Linear
- 3 Beyond English
- 4 The “Unsolvable” Puzzle
- 5 The Riddle of “DL”
- 6 Sign Languages
- 7 Chunking in Action
- 8 Is Language Innate?
- 9 Language in the Genes
- 10 How Animals Communicate
- 11 Can Apes Learn Language?
- 12 Back to Humans: Language Teaching
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
This chapter compares human language to animal (non-human) communication. It is shown that animal communicative signals are holistic and cannot be broken down into re-arrangeable subunits corresponding to human words in sentences. It is also shown that animal communicative signals can be analyzed in a way parallel to how linguists analyze previously undescribed or unknown human languages.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Language Rules!Secrets of a Uniquely Human Ability, pp. 188 - 206Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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