• Question: can other animals think in english or their own language ?

    Asked by mawmanjr01 to Adam, Catherine, Leila on 22 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by ejrw.
    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 22 Mar 2012:

      That’s an interesting question. There’s a lot of debate about whether people think in their own language or whether it just seems that way. People that are bilingual have interesting opinions on this and some people say they stop thinking about things with language, more as abstract concepts.

      This is probably what it’s like for animals – they think in concepts rather than words. Therefore, they might be thinking “hungry” but it doesn’t ‘appear’ as a word…

      It’s really hard to explain since we are a species so dependent on language and words to express ourselves. However we do use body language a lot, so maybe animals think in animal body language!

    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 22 Mar 2012:

      While lots of animals like dogs and horses seem to respond to English (or any other language) words, they’re actually just trained to respond to a certain kind of sound.

      Scientists don’t know a lot about how other animals think – we don’t even know if they are ‘self-aware’. Though many of them will have instincts, these probably won’t be linked to any particular ‘word’ in their head.

      But how do animals communicate between themselves? They don’t ‘speak’ to eachother with recognisiable words, but probably have a complicated set of body movements or noises (that we may or may not be able to hear), for the few things they need to say to each other. The fact that we can’t work out what animals on earth are saying doesn’t bode well for being able to understand and communicate with aliens!

Comments