There is a saying in our country that "people have human speech, and animals have animal speech." It seems that in addition to humans, the animal kingdom also has language. In ancient my country, there was even a legend that "Gongye always knows the birds singing". It is said that one day, Gongye Chang was studying in the house. Suddenly, the cry of birds came from the window: "Gongye Chang, Gongye Chang, the tiger is dragging the sheep on the south hillside. Bring the dead sheep back quickly. You eat the meat and I eat the intestines." Gongye Chang heard the sound and ran to take a look. Sure enough, there was a killed sheep on the south hillside, so he dragged it back. In works of the genre of myths, fairy tales, and fables, all animals are written to look like humans, and all of them are eloquent. This kind of novel is really a vast world where "talking birds" and "talking beasts" can move freely. In language, we also often see idioms such as "birds singing in front of the eaves" and "birds singing and flowers fragrant". This is like saying that animals can talk, and birds are very talkative animals.
Actually, these are unreliable. Because, as far as our current scientific level is concerned, there is not enough evidence to confirm this: that is, the animal kingdom also has a language similar to humans. Take the "talkative" birds as an example. A group of sparrows landed on the wires. They were always chirping, each of them "talking" constantly and at the same time. It can be seen that this is not a conversation or dialogue like humans. This kind of bird language is not the same as human language. Why? Because language associated with logical thinking is a unique phenomenon of human society. It is one of the important signs that distinguish humans from animals.
The emergence of language requires the following two prerequisites:
First, there must be an urgent need for social communication. Although the animal kingdom has the characteristics of living in groups, it is not organized into a society. They are very different from humans. Therefore, Engels once pointed out: "In the state of nature, no animal feels that the inability to speak or understand human language is a defect." ① As for humans, due to socialized labor, it is unimaginable that there is no language as a tool for social communication. Therefore, common labor has enabled human beings to have the conditions for the production of language.
Secondly, the production of language must also be based on physiological conditions, with the ability to pronounce clearly and be able to produce a considerable number of different sounds; in terms of psychological conditions, it must also have the ability to think logically, enough to prepare the necessary meanings for words. However, these two conditions can only develop and mature on the basis of human beings carrying out social labor. Labor freed humans' hands and allowed them to stand upright and walk. This may seem ordinary, but it is of great significance!
Because, on the one hand, this promoted the evolution of human vocal organs, making the passage between the mouth and the larynx and trachea form a right angle, unlike four-legged animals. On the other hand, it also promotes the development of human thinking ability and consciousness, because after standing upright, human vision is expanded, standing high and seeing far, allowing him to obtain more visual impressions than four-legged animals; and the freed hands come into contact with various things during labor, so that the nervous system receives more diverse stimuli, thus improving its own reaction function and exercising the ability to distinguish and recognize things.
The combination of these factors has greatly promoted the development of thinking ability and consciousness, and prepared a material foundation for the emergence of language. As for various animals, since they do not have social labor, they do not fully meet the conditions mentioned above. Their pronunciation ability is very limited, and they cannot make a large number of different sounds like humans; their thinking ability is low, and they cannot think independently of the image of specific things and rely on the signals (words) of things. Therefore, it is difficult to have a language that is inseparable from logical thinking as a tool for communicating ideas.
Of course, this does not mean that animals cannot use some different sounds to convey certain emotions. Careful observation can enable us to discover that birds, animals, insects, mice, etc. all have different chirping sounds as signals.
For example, their chirping sounds are different when greeting companions, expressing joy, or when encountering danger. It is said that there was a granary manager in Sichuan Province who learned to use "rat language" to help catch rats. Once, he saw a mouse sticking its head out to visit in the corner of the house, and then patrolling the roof beams before making a soft squeaking sound, and then three mice came out in response. Another time, when he saw mice fighting for food, he screamed, and then several mice ran out to take advantage of the situation. Another time, he saw a mouse aware of the "enemy situation" and immediately made a rapid and rough sound. The surrounding mice immediately ran away after hearing it. In this way, he imitated the "rat language" and used the "ask for companion" sound to trap the rats, and achieved good results. It is also said that a Frenchman once used "crow language" to serve agriculture.
Once, he punished a caught crow, and used a tape recorder to record the painful screams of the crow when it was struggling desperately, and then took it to the field to broadcast. As a result, as soon as the loudspeaker sounded, all the crows living far and near immediately flew away in fear and loudly. After ten days, these crows did not dare to come back, thus effectively protecting the crops from harm.
However, no matter what, this kind of chirping is far from being called a language. It is just a conditioned reflex. Someone once conducted such an experiment: when a chick was tied up, the chick struggled and screamed. When the hen heard it, she immediately became anxious and tried every means to rescue it. However, if the duckling is covered with a thick glass cover so that the hen cannot hear the scream, the hen will walk around outside the glass cover as if nothing has happened. Although it sees the chick struggling inside, it does not realize how much danger the chick is in. It can be seen that the hen does not have the ability to think logically, and the scream of the chick is not language, it is just a sound signal associated with danger.
Therefore, we say that there is no language in the animal kingdom. Not only does it have no language, but it also cannot learn human language. When a trained monkey hears its owner shouting "roll!", it rolls on the ground. This is not because the monkey has learned human language, but just because after repeated training, it reacts like this when it hears the sound "roll". In India, "wolf children" have been found many times, that is, children who were picked up by wolves when they were young and raised by female wolves. One of them is called Kamala, another is Amala, and another is Lamu (named after being captured). Their sense of smell and touch are highly developed. They have lived in the hospital for many years and learned to eat and play, but they cannot speak and can only use howls to express what they need. In Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, there is a "monkey boy". This boy has lived among monkeys for many years. He was discovered by farmers in Burundi four years ago and named John. He is estimated to be about eight years old. Most of his body is covered with hair. He crawls and jumps on all fours. The farmers chased him fiercely before catching him.
Now, he has learned to walk on two feet and eat food processed by humans, but he cannot speak yet. Although they are children born from humans, they are unable to master human language because they are separated from human society. The Kamala and Amara mentioned above died without being able to learn human language. Therefore, Comrade Stalin pointed out: "Outside of society, language does not matter." Many natural scientists have conducted experiments on animals, that is, higher animals, such as apes, ; or they have taught them to speak mouth-to-mouth, but in the end they have failed to learn human language. After many such experiments, the result is that they are unable to carry out connected conversations at all, and their speech is limited to a single sound or cry repeated in the same way, and that's it. When it comes to learning languages, the smartest ones are parrots, but after repeated training, they can only repeat a few sentences in a very awkward voice. A parrot can learn to speak, but it cannot really learn human language, and what it can learn is also very limited.
It can be seen from this that language is a phenomenon unique to human society, and there is no language in the animal kingdom. The so-called "language of birds and beasts" is, after all, different from human language.
For example, their chirping sounds are different when greeting companions, expressing joy, or when encountering danger. It is said that there was a granary manager in Sichuan Province who learned to use "rat language" to help catch rats. Once, he saw a mouse sticking its head out to visit in the corner of the house, and then patrolling the roof beams before making a soft squeaking sound, and then three mice came out in response. Another time, when he saw mice fighting for food, he screamed, and then several mice ran out to take advantage of the situation. Another time, he saw a mouse aware of the "enemy situation" and immediately made a rapid and rough sound. The surrounding mice immediately ran away after hearing it. In this way, he imitated the "rat language" and used the "ask for companion" sound to trap the rats, and achieved good results. It is also said that a Frenchman once used "crow language" to serve agriculture.
Once, he punished a caught crow, and used a tape recorder to record the painful screams of the crow when it was struggling desperately, and then took it to the field to broadcast. As a result, as soon as the loudspeaker sounded, all the crows living far and near immediately flew away in fear and loudly. After ten days, these crows did not dare to come back, thus effectively protecting the crops from harm.
However, no matter what, this kind of chirping is far from being called a language. It is just a conditioned reflex. Someone once conducted such an experiment: when a chick was tied up, the chick struggled and screamed. When the hen heard it, she immediately became anxious and tried every means to rescue it. However, if the duckling is covered with a thick glass cover so that the hen cannot hear the scream, the hen will walk around outside the glass cover as if nothing has happened. Although it sees the chick struggling inside, it does not realize how much danger the chick is in. It can be seen that the hen does not have the ability to think logically, and the scream of the chick is not language, it is just a sound signal associated with danger.
Therefore, we say that there is no language in the animal kingdom. Not only does it have no language, but it also cannot learn human language. When a trained monkey hears its owner shouting "roll!", it rolls on the ground. This is not because the monkey has learned human language, but just because after repeated training, it reacts like this when it hears the sound "roll". In India, "wolf children" have been found many times, that is, children who were picked up by wolves when they were young and raised by female wolves. One of them is called Kamala, another is Amala, and another is Lamu (named after being captured). Their sense of smell and touch are highly developed. They have lived in the hospital for many years and learned to eat and play, but they cannot speak and can only use howls to express what they need. In Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, there is a "monkey boy". This boy has lived among monkeys for many years. He was discovered by farmers in Burundi four years ago and named John. He is estimated to be about eight years old. Most of his body is covered with hair. He crawls and jumps on all fours. The farmers chased him fiercely before catching him.
Now, he has learned to walk on two feet and eat food processed by humans, but he cannot speak yet. Although they are children born from humans, they are unable to master human language because they are separated from human society. The Kamala and Amara mentioned above died without being able to learn human language. Therefore, Comrade Stalin pointed out: "Outside of society, language does not matter." Many natural scientists have conducted experiments on animals, that is, higher animals, such as apes, ; or they have taught them to speak mouth-to-mouth, but in the end they have failed to learn human language. After many such experiments, the result is that they are unable to carry out connected conversations at all, and their speech is limited to a single sound or cry repeated in the same way, and that's it. When it comes to learning languages, the smartest ones are parrots, but after repeated training, they can only repeat a few sentences in a very awkward voice. A parrot can learn to speak, but it cannot really learn human language, and what it can learn is also very limited.
It can be seen from this that language is a phenomenon unique to human society, and there is no language in the animal kingdom. The so-called "language of birds and beasts" is, after all, different from human language.
