Noam Chomsky's Language Criteria - Do Animals Have Language?
Philosophers and scientists have long wondered whether animals were capable of communicating with each other in the form of language. However, research regarding both the cranial and cognitive capacity of higher mammals suggests that these animals are capable of many cerebral functions that used to be the purview of humans.
This paper argues that higher mammals like primates, dolphins and whales are capable of and have evolved a complex language of their own. Towards this, the paper looks at the recent research done regarding the "whistling" and other auditory communication among dolphins. In arguing that this "whistling" constitutes and fulfills the functions of language, the paper uses the framework on the syntactic structures and the various aspects of language. Through an application of Chomsky's criteria, this paper argues that dolphins have evolved a communication system made of whistling sounds that serve many of the purposes of human language.
Chomsky's functions of language
For Chomsky, human language is characterized first and foremost by structural principles like grammar, an underlying system of rules that govern the communication exchange. By understanding the rules that govern this communication, humans are able to develop a "creative ability" that allows them to speak or understand sentences that they have not heard previously (Chomsky 19-21).
Furthermore, the system of grammar is composed of "surface structures" like sounds and words. By employing the rules of grammar and interpretation, people are able to transform these sounds into meanings. They are also capable of converting their own meaning into sounds, to communicate with other human beings.
Aside from communicating needs, Chomsky believed that language allowed humans to express thoughts, establish friendships and other social ties and to transmit information to clarify abstract ideas (Chomsky 18).
Dolphin sounds
Many...
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