A talking animal or speaking animal refers to any non-human animal which can produce sounds (or gestures) resembling those of a human language. Many species or groups of animals have developed forms of Animal Communication Systems (ACS) which to some appear to be a verbal language. These are not defined as language in the human sense—they lack grammar, syntax, recursion, and displacement. Studies in animal cognition have been successful in teaching some animals speech or sign, similar to sign language, but not defined as such. In the case of Koko the gorilla, for example, Koko was unable to break away from the here-and-now (displacement) in her signs. This among others represent various hallmarks of human language that Koko and similar animals have been unable to achieve.
Read more about Talking Animal: On Imitation and Understanding, On Formality of Animal Language
Famous quotes containing the words talking and/or animal:
“There is assuredly no more effectual method of clearing up one’s own mind on any subject than by talking it over, so to speak, with men of real power and grasp, who have considered it from a totally different point of view.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“He is blessed who is assured that the animal is dying out in him day by day, and the divine being established.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)