Xenolinguistics: Communicating with other lifeforms

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Xenolinguistics: Communicating with other lifeforms

How are we to explain what animals can and cannot learn about language, and what children can and do learn?

If we can bring animals to the limits of their capabilities we may be able to see if what they are doing has anything to do with the precursors of human language, and if so, what must have taken place in our evolution to enable us to come so much further in our language capability.

It is always possible to compare, the question is whether the comparison
is valid and interesting. It is not sufficient to merely juxtapose two instances of a phenomenon, begin listing the components of each and performing an item by item comparison. First we must establish a basis
for the juxtaposition.



Human language complexity is but a myth. The only complexity, if any, arises from the fact that humans are both predators and preys, thus one would expect a certain degree in complexity in human language. But except for this, human language is not more complex than, say, wolf or dolphin language.

Barks appear to be unsuitable for stable information transmission, but they are appropriate for a few other purposes, including acoustic ranging. Barks are short, vocalizations that cover a broad frequency range – from below 500 Hz to over 2.5 kHz. This type of sound has some distinct advantages when used in the context of agonistic interactions or as an alarm call. Barks are likely to trigger the acoustic-startle reflex in nearby animals, which causes them to increase their alertness and orient towards the sound source.

Actually, human language is extremely predictable, highly unefficient, and easily learnable. I guess xenolinguistics will be a matter of second language acquisition, as usual, if and only if, the biological species we wish to communicate with are humanlike lifeforms.

https://forgottenlanguages-full.forgott ... -with.html