The idea of talking animals is as old and as widespread among human societies as language itself. All cultures have legends in which some animal plays a speaking role. All over West
Africa, children listen to folktales in which a “spider-man” is the hero. “Coyote”
is a favorite figure in many Native American tales, and many an animal takes
the stage in Aesop’s famous fables. The fictional Doctor Doolittle’s forte was
communicating with all manner of animals, from giant snails to tiny sparrows.
If language is viewed only as a system of communication, then many species
communicate. Humans also use systems other than language to relate to each
other and to send and receive “messages,” like so-called body language. The
question is whether the communication systems used by other species are at all
like human linguistic knowledge, which is acquired by children with no instruction, and which is used creatively rather than in response to internal or external stimuli.