Acoustic Communication
This feline vocalization is strictly reserved for human-to-cat interaction.
What is the Meow?
These species-specific chemical blends act as "syntax" for moths.
What are Pheromones?
This specific spatial movement by honeybees communicates both the direction and the distance of a food source relative to the sun.
What is the Waggle Dance?
This famous Chimpanzee was the first non-human to be taught American Sign Language (ASL), sparking the "Great Ape Language" debates of the 1970s.
Who is Washoe?
This specific gene, often called the "language gene," underwent a rapid selective sweep in humans but exists in a different form in songbirds and Neanderthals.
What is FOXP2?
This adversarial tactic involves moths "confusing" a predator's acoustic signal.
What is Ultrasonic Jamming?
This limitation of olfactory communication makes it unlike human language.
What is lack of arbitrariness or lack of productivity?
Tactile signals often convey this type of information rather than propositional content.
What is emotional or affective information?
Primates commonly use this tactile behavior to reinforce social bonds.
What is grooming?
Dialects in bird songs provide evidence for this phenomenon.
What is vocal learning?
The name for the complex, repeating vocal patterns produced by Humpback whales.
What are Whale Songs?
The "receiver" organ in male moths that acts like a biological filter for scent.
What are (Plumose) Antennae?
A dog’s "play bow" is this type of communicative signal (metacommunication).
What is Aggression or Defense?
This specific type of primate call is "functionally referential," meaning it triggers the same behavioral response in listeners as the actual sight of a predator.
What is an Alarm Call?
Most animal communication is optimized for this function.
What is survival/reproduction?
The low-frequency sounds used by elephants that can travel through the ground.
What is Infrasound?
Unlike words, smell and touch signals rarely show this property.
What is arbitrariness or compositionality?
In deeper waters, visual communication is often replaced or supplemented by this mode.
What is bioluminescence?
Primate gestures show flexibility and intentionality, yet linguists still argue primates lack language. What key property explains this gap?
What is the absence of symbolic compositional syntax?
Name one animal communication system with clear cultural transmission.
What are (examples) bird song, whale song, dolphin whistles?
Several marine species use this biological sonar system to "see" underwater.
What is echolocation?
Name a species that uses olfactory communication in addition to all other modes of communication.
What are dogs, wolves, cats and primates (e.g. monkeys, chimpanzees)?
Many reef fishes use rapid color changes primarily to signal this social information.
What is dominance, aggression, or mating readiness?
This particular mode of communication in primates is innate, and part of their biological ability.
What are gestures?
This conclusion reflects the mainstream linguistic view of primate communication.
What is that primates communicate effectively but do not use language?