Diferencias entre la comunicación animal y el lenguaje humano

The differences between animal and human communication are profound, but all the differences seem to derive from a single basic fact: humans possess a natural, inborn facility to be creative with symbols; as far as we know, animals do not.

Comunicación animal

Animal systems are set responses to stimuli. Animal communication is used to express something more or less immediately present in space and time. The signs of animal communication are used as indexes. Animals can't communicate about yesterday.

El lenguaje humano

Human language can be used as an index, just like animal communication, but it may also exhibit what has been termed displacement. Humans can not only talk about things that are absent but also about things that have never been. Humans can invent myths and tell lies. Human language can be used arbitrarily, with the stimulus deep within the speaker's psyche and the topic not present or even non-existent. Animal languages can only be used as a means of pointing to something directly present in time and space.

Human language is unlimited in its expressive capacity. Besides containing word symbols, human languages are based on a system of patterns, or rules, called grammar.

La gramática como clave de la creatividad

Grammar can be defined as patterns with function but no specific meaning: phonology (new sound combinations), morphology (new words), syntax (new sentences). It is the grammar that allows language signs to be used with virtually endless creativity.

Limitaciones de los sistemas animales

Animal systems are limited to a strictly defined, finite range of possible messages: there is never anything new because there is no abstract level similar to human grammar.

Comparación con reacciones innatas

We can say that the signs of animal communication are more like inborn and involuntary human reactions such as laughter, crying, and sneezing than they are like human language. As far as we know, humans have always had laughter and tears as natural inborn responses: children develop them naturally and they don't change from generation to generation. Even here, however, humans can use these responses deliberately and creatively, or suppress their naturally felt urges to express them.