What is the difference between animal calls and human language?

Question

Thank you!

Answer 1

brain size to comprehend higher intelligence.

Answer 2

what does the difference between animal calls and human language say about structural organization?

and what is the difference on how they are produced?

can you say that humans have the ability to use icons and symbols in their language and animals cant?

Answer 3

What makes you think there's only ONE difference?

Seems to me there are a lot of differences. What, exactly, they are depends on how you look at things. There's differences in vocabulary size, there's syntax, there's the range of what we can say.

There's differences in physiology (the apparatus by which we speak, our specialized language-processing area of our brain).

There's differences in acquisition -- depending on which critters you're comparing us to.

Answer 4

animals dont have to learn their calls

but as humans we have to learn a language to be able to communicate

Answer 5

human language is a set of codified signs, animals are instinctive

Answer 6

Human language is civilized and can be understood by every living animal. But the calls of every animal is not understandable by all.

Answer 7

Really, just a level of complexity.

Chickens have different calls as 'warning nouns'. Cries that mean HAWK! or DOG!

Most social animals are like this. It gets more complicated  the smarter the animal is. When you get to dolphins you will have a rudimentary language, that is learned, and has different dialects and language groups they way human languages do. They use body language mostly though, sounds are generally restricted to warnings

We've never been able to learn 'dolphin', but some researchers made up an artificial dolphin language of clicks and whistles, and they can follow instructions in it and copy it to ask for toys and fish.

Chimps have a very limited vocal range, as their larynx is different. However, when taught human sign language they can use it in a basic way, and even use it to communicate with each other in chimp-only situations. They can also understand human speech reasonably well.

Humans have a descended larynx, and we can control our breathing, both of which are a feature of aquatic mammals. The 'breathing control' makes speech possible.

We also have a mutation of a gene called the FOX2p gene, the allows us to make more complicated sounds. Birds minus this version of the gene can only make a limiterd kind of song.

Speech in avians hasn't been well researched, but you can teach an African grey parrot to the language level of a three year old child. They can even do very basic addition, and understand abstract concepts like numbers and colours.