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September 18, 2005
Language
1.)Language is an amazing thing. It is the construct of the human race and for animals as well. Language is knowing sounds, meaning, words, symbols, hand motions, or expressions and putting them all together to create sentences and meaning that one group of people or animals can fully understand. Language is a shared thing between a group that creates who they are. Without language we wouldn't know how to communicate, and without communication, there would be no world today. The wolf in question number seven does definietly have a language similar to a human's. We use words, or for some expressions or hand motions, and the wolves use positions of their bodies. If other wolves can understand them and they are communicating with eachother, then yes, they are using language. However, in question number eight, I don't believe that these words being used as cues is teaching a dog a language. I would say it's teaching a dog the English language, which he will eventually become familiar with, and respond to the words. However, they are only words and meanings that he is learning and language is made up of more than words and meanings.
Language is not just mumble jumble. It is a big deal to people and animals everywhere. It isn't just words put together because they sound nice, or gestures followed by one another because they look good, it is the way of life for people and animals.
2.)I don't think the statements "I learned a new word today" and "I learned a new sentence today" are equally probable. A person can learn a new word in a day because they continually hear words they don't know whether it is on television, the radio, by a person they walked by in the street. But to leanr a new sentence I don't think makes sense. You put words together every day to make sentences and most of the sentences you make, you probably didn't hear before. Every sentence is unique and is created differently. IF you write and essay on a topic, you don't go to a sentence dictionary to look for sentences that are relevant to your topic. You just write, you creat new sentences, and these sentences are probably new sentences. But you didn't learn them, you made them.
Posted by lcisnelson at September 18, 2005 12:24 PM
Comments
I agree with you about the wolf and about the dog. I think the wolf definitely has its own language since they all communicate with each other and are able to understand what the other wolves are "saying". The dog is not learning English because it will never be able to make its own sentences like we are able to do. The dog is just learning sounds like you said and then learning how we want them to respond to that. I think your post was very insightful and interesting to read.
Posted by: Katie at September 25, 2005 08:01 PM