Question: Why is it that it is possible that humans can teach other humans to talk but cannot teach an animal for example: Dogs or Orang-utans, Is it just a special ability for humans or has it got something to do with the animals brain? :)
There are lots of theories on language learning, but most of them think that we are born with an innate ability to learn language, and that when people talk to us as we’re growing up, this activates that ability.
There have been interesting cases of ‘wild’ children who have grown up without human contact until they were about 8 or 9 – they never managed to acquire language even after being bought back to human settlements.
So I think that there would be a species-specific way we learn language, but people have taught orangutans (I think) to understand signs, and non-verbal language so it is possible. I guess a lot of the problem with them learning spoken language though is that they can’t make the same noises we do!
I agree with Emma, also most animals don’t actually have the right body parts to talk. You need a specific kind of throat to produce speech the way humans do.
That’s why ‘planet of the apes’ could never work. Monkeys don’t have the right bits to talk.
Most animals do communicate, so maybe we should learn their ‘speech’ instead.
We have specific brain regions devoted to the production and understanding of language, and anatomy that allows us to make the necessary sounds. These aren’t necessarily present, or at least very different in animals.
Brain regions, as the others have said and also our apparent innate desire to actually talk! We think about what it is that we want to say and it is then said, using all the right body parts and muscles. We then understand (most of the time!) what others are saying to us, interpret it and then chose to respond.
So there are lots of different processes going on in the human brain relating to language.
But, there is some argument about whether other animals can also communicate using language. For example, humpback whales can communicate using song over large distances, though we aren’t sure if they are saying, “hello” or “Hello, I am here, where are you?”, which if you think about it, are 2 very different forms of communication, using different parts of the brain 🙂
There are lots of theories on language learning, but most of them think that we are born with an innate ability to learn language, and that when people talk to us as we’re growing up, this activates that ability.
There have been interesting cases of ‘wild’ children who have grown up without human contact until they were about 8 or 9 – they never managed to acquire language even after being bought back to human settlements.
So I think that there would be a species-specific way we learn language, but people have taught orangutans (I think) to understand signs, and non-verbal language so it is possible. I guess a lot of the problem with them learning spoken language though is that they can’t make the same noises we do!
1
I agree with Emma, also most animals don’t actually have the right body parts to talk. You need a specific kind of throat to produce speech the way humans do.
That’s why ‘planet of the apes’ could never work. Monkeys don’t have the right bits to talk.
Most animals do communicate, so maybe we should learn their ‘speech’ instead.
1
We have specific brain regions devoted to the production and understanding of language, and anatomy that allows us to make the necessary sounds. These aren’t necessarily present, or at least very different in animals.
1
Brain regions, as the others have said and also our apparent innate desire to actually talk! We think about what it is that we want to say and it is then said, using all the right body parts and muscles. We then understand (most of the time!) what others are saying to us, interpret it and then chose to respond.
So there are lots of different processes going on in the human brain relating to language.
But, there is some argument about whether other animals can also communicate using language. For example, humpback whales can communicate using song over large distances, though we aren’t sure if they are saying, “hello” or “Hello, I am here, where are you?”, which if you think about it, are 2 very different forms of communication, using different parts of the brain 🙂
1