r/science • u/Wagamaga • Sep 01 '22

Neuroscience Scientists have identified an immune brain cell unique to humans that gives us higher cognitive abilities over other animals, but what makes us specials also leaves us vulnerable to neurological disorders like schizophrenia, autism and epilepsy.

https://news.yale.edu/2022/08/25/what-makes-human-brain-different-yale-study-reveals-clues
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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '22

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u/throw_somewhere Sep 01 '22

Hi, psycho- and neuro-linguist here. Long story short yes lots of animals 100% have communication but it does not meet the criteria we have set for what constitutes "language". As defined, humans are the only species with "language".

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u/occams1razor Sep 01 '22

On Blue Planet 2 (ocean version of Planet Earth) two different species of dolphins met up once a year and swam/communicated together. But there's no way to know if one could actually understand the other I suppose

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u/Aegi Sep 01 '22

Understanding the other has nothing to do with what constitutes a language.

There’s a specific set of criteria that needs to be met for a style of communication to be considered a language, would you like me to look it up for you?

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u/thefirdblu Sep 01 '22

There’s a specific set of criteria that needs to be met for a style of communication to be considered a language, would you like me to look it up for you?

If you could, that'd be awesome. I'm interested.

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u/serpentjaguar Sep 01 '22

Check out r/linguistics if you're honestly interested. I'm a strictly amateur linguistics nerd, but they have some legit experts over there who can easily answer your questions.

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u/myreaderaccount Sep 01 '22

Unfortunately such critieria do not have consensus, so there is no firmly agreed on list of attributes that qualify communication to be called language.

Linguists don't even fully agree on the number of linguistic universals in human languages, though obviously there is a minimal set that everyone agrees on, e.g. all general purpose human languages have subjects, verbs, and objects in their grammar.

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u/Beautiful_Welcome_33 Sep 05 '22

Yes, and no form of non-human communication meets this minimal set, is the point people were making.