Passage A One function of language is to influence others’ behavior by changing what they know, believe, or desire. For humans engaged in conversation, the perception of the most common vocalization stimulus.
While animal vocalizations may have evolved because they can potentially alter listeners’ behavior to the signaler’s benefit, such communication is—in contrast to human language—inadvertent, because most animals, with the possible exception of chimpanzees, cannot attribute mental states to others. The male Physalaemus frog calls because calling causes females to approach and other Many animal vocalizations whose production initially seems goal-directed are not as purposeful as they first appear.
Passage B Many scientists distinguish animal communication systems from human language on the grounds that the former are rigid responses to is spontaneous and creative.
In this connection, it is commonly stated that no animal can use its communication system to lie. Obviously, a lie requires intention to deceive: to judge whether a particular instance of animal communication is truly prevarication requires knowledge of the animal’s intentions. Language philosopher H. P. Grice explains that for an individual merely a conditioned reflex: animals may use communicative signs but lack conscious intention regarding their use.
But these arguments are circular: conscious intention is ruled out a priori and then its absence taken as evidence that animal communication is fundamentally different from human language. In fact, the narrowing of the perceived gap between animal communication and human language revealed by recent research with chimpanzees and other animals calls that animals respond mechanically to stimuli, whereas humans speak with conscious understanding and intent.
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