Comparison Between Animal Communication and Language

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Language is a structured system that consists of grammar and vocabulary. Although animals communicate with each other, it has remained unsettled that whether animals use language. As Pearce concluded four main elements of language (arbitrariness of units, semanticity, displacement and productivity), this paper aims to evaluate animal communication according to these criteria and figure out their ability to learn language by studying the experiments conducted by scientists before. As a result, this paper found that animal communication met the criterion of semanticity, but failed to meet other criteria, especially the criterion of displacement and productivity, and it is very hard to teach them language. It is argued that they showed no evidence of using language even after they were taught some elements of it. The conclusion indicated that animals do not have language considering the evidence drawn from the studies before. However, it is also suggested that further studies are needed to find a better way to study animal communication and more suitable criteria for them. Signs also showed that animals may develop language referring to these criteria in the future.