From: Tom Duff <td@pixar.com> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5453
On Tue, 23 Jul 2013, Warren D Smith wrote:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/22/bottlenose-dolphins-names-...
--I think that language log guy (G.K.Pullum) is complaining way too much, devoting great effort to attack a claim that was not made. The dolphin finding seems valid to me, no matter how much he whines about it, and it does not say (nor far as I could see was it trying to) that dolphins have human-like language. It indicates that they have a useful functionality of indicating to each other who is located where. Pullum completely fails to comprehend that that would be very useful functionality for a herd of dolphins, instead wondering why if anybody shouted out "G.K. Pullum" in the street he would respond "G.K.Pullum" -- he sees no reason, therefore the whole thing is "obviously spurious." No, it is "obviously correct" (unless simply fraudulent) and interesting, and a simple and reproducible experiment (and Pullum seems to me to be a pompous idiot), and furthermore it might cast light on the beginnings of actual human language since, e.g, such a functionality could have started the whole ball rolling on that. (Indeed, we might ask: when, in human history, did "names" first appear? Probably unanswerable.) Incidentally, other animals also have communication abilities in some ways resembling language, for example honeybees use a dance-based sign language which has been decoded using video and artificial bee-robots, and is extremely useful for them. The Australian stingless bees however do not do that and may communicate in a quite different manner (olfactory?).