Most animals have a very limited number of messages they can send or receive. The male of a certain species of grasshopper, for example, has choice of six, which might be translated as follows:
1. I am happy, life is good,
2. I would like to make love.
3. You are trespassing on my territory.
4. She's mine.
5. Let's make live.
6. Oh how nice to have made love.
Not only is the number of messages fixed for the grasshopper, but so are the circumstances under which each can be communicated, all animals, as far as we know, are limited in a similar way. Bees can communicate only about nectar. Dolphins, in spite of their intelligence and large number of clicks, whistles and squawks, seem to be restricted to communicating about the same things again and again. And when the clever monkey, who is claimed to make thirty-six different vocal sounds, is obliged to repeat these over and over.
This type of restriction is not found in human language, which is essentially creative (or productive). A human can produce a novel utterance whenever he wants to. He can utter sentence which has never been said before, in the most unlikely circumstances, and still be understood.
1. I am happy, life is good,
2. I would like to make love.
3. You are trespassing on my territory.
4. She's mine.
5. Let's make live.
6. Oh how nice to have made love.
Not only is the number of messages fixed for the grasshopper, but so are the circumstances under which each can be communicated, all animals, as far as we know, are limited in a similar way. Bees can communicate only about nectar. Dolphins, in spite of their intelligence and large number of clicks, whistles and squawks, seem to be restricted to communicating about the same things again and again. And when the clever monkey, who is claimed to make thirty-six different vocal sounds, is obliged to repeat these over and over.
This type of restriction is not found in human language, which is essentially creative (or productive). A human can produce a novel utterance whenever he wants to. He can utter sentence which has never been said before, in the most unlikely circumstances, and still be understood.
