Can I read Doctor Doolittle's delusion: animals and the uniqueness of human language on EtoBox?

Doctor Doolittle's delusion: animals and the uniqueness of human language by Professor Stephen R. Anderson is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is Doctor Doolittle's delusion: animals and the uniqueness of human language about?

Dr. Dolittle—and many students of animal communication—are wrong: animals cannot use language. This fascinating book explains why. Can animals be taught a human language and use it to communicate? Or is human language unique to human beings, just as many complex behaviors of other species are uniquely theirs? This engrossing book explores communication and cognition in animals and humans from a linguistic point of view and asserts that animals are not capable of acquiring or using human language.Stephen R. Anderson explains what is meant by communication, the difference between communication and language, and the essential characteristics of language. Next he examines a variety of animal communication systems, including bee dances, frog vocalizations, bird songs, and alarm calls and other vocal, gestural, and olfactory communication among primates. Anderson then compares these to human language, including signed languages used by the deaf. Arguing that attempts to teach human languages or their equivalents to the great apes have not succeeded in demonstrating linguistic abilities in nonhuman species, he concludes that animal communication systems—intriguing and varied though they

Who reads Doctor Doolittle's delusion: animals and the uniqueness of human language?

Author

Professor Stephen R. Anderson

Publisher

Yale University Press

Published

2004

Language

EN

ISBN

9781281740687

Category

nonfiction

Subjects

Science, Language Learning, Social Science