Comunicación animal

INTRODUCTION
The communicative activity appears in the world and evolutionates lonf time before the existence of human beings. Probably , the first animals with faculty to communicate appear at the end of the Superior Precambrici.e 600 millions of years ago. The human lineage has “only” six million years. Consequently, human beings have inheritaged a capaciy that arose with the aim ofsatisfaying necessities of biological nature, whose features were conformed along many years of evolution, in the “laboratory” of animal interaction.

HUMAN LANGUAGE VS ANIMAL LANGUAGE

The verb “talk” can be employed with two different meanings. It refers to the act of pronouncing words and to use language in a significative way. Some animals are able to “talk” according to the first sense but theaim of this project, and a field of study within psycholinguistics, is to know if animals can use language in the second sense. So we are going to deal with the next question: Is the difference in the language of animals nd humans qualitative or just quantitative?

The method, that wil be followed in this project, is to compare the animal and human language to infer if there are qualitatives orjust quantitatives differences.
Firstly , we have to define the concept of language. Because of the variaty of definition, we have selected ten features that, according to Hockett, are specific of the human language.

1.- Use of an auditive-vocal channel.
That is one of the most evident features of human language. Related to animal the use of sounds is quite normal, too. We just have tothink about birds, dogs...The advantages of this method, from the point of view of evolution, is that allow the speaker to do other activities simultaneously and, at the same time, it does not require a huge energetic cost.
It is necessary to remark that this attribute of language it is not essential even within human language. We can convey information through visual symbols ( written words) orBraille. So, people ,whom their vocal cords have been extirpated , maintain their linguistics capacities. For these reason , the use of an auditive vocal channel is not
a distinctive element of language between humans and animals.

2.- Arbitrarity
It is based on the use of neutral symbols in the human language. For example, there is no relation between the word “fish” and the animal that thisword represents. Some onomatopoeic words are exceptions to this general rule.
In the case of animals, it is common the existence of a relation between the message and the symbol employed to transmit it. For instance , a crab will extend one of its major claws to indicate a message of big aggresion . If its state of irritability is lesser , the crab will extend jus a leg.
However, arbitrarysymbols are also employed in animal language. Sometimes, seagulls show an aggressive behaviour by means of flying away of their enemy and removing grass of the ground with the beak
So, arbitrarity seems not to be a fully distinctive mark between animal and human language.

3.- Semanicity
Semanticity is related to the use of symbols to “sign”, to refer to objects and actions. So when we talkabout a “chair” that means: “surface that is held by four legs and it is used to sit down”. Human beings can employ this term in a general way, applying it to each sort of chair and not just one in particular. Some authors consider that semanticity is an exclusive human’s feature. So , when a hen want to warn other hens about the presence of a fox, she will convey a message giving notice of theexistence of a danger but not particulary the presence of the fox. She does not distinguish if the danger is a fox or a wolf.
However , there are a few animals that emit particular sounds to concrete menaces. That is the case of vervet monkeys. A sound similar to cht announce th presence of a snake. If the sound is something like rraup is warning of the menace of an eagle. A chattering sound...