AI, Extraterrestrials, Terrestrial Animals -- I seem to have widened my linguistic scope, recently.
Last spring I adopted a new dog. We enrolled in an obedience class this fall. The teacher suggested a book, "On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals", by Turid Rugaas. Animals commnicate a great deal with body signals which humans can learn to understand and even use, themselves. Turid illustrates her book with many photos illustrating these signals.
I immediately recognized one that Oliver, my Jack Russell (now deceased) made great use of -- looking away. I would call him to come in the house. He would immediately look in the other direction. "I don't hear you and I don't understand you and since I'm not looking at you I don't see you waving your hands in my direction. So I'm not really disobeying you by continuing to run around the yard."
Just like a little kid!
Two polite dog strangers will carefully ingnore each other and pretend they don't really notice one another until they've had the chance, little-by-little, to check each other out.
When I offer my corgi-mix, Daisy, a treat with a pill hidden in the middle, she turns her head away from it. "No, I know what it is and I won't eat it." I offer from another angle having added a dab of peanut butter. She turns her head away again. "No! The answer is still No!"
In an earlier blog post I mentioned the fact that all humans have the point gesture, whether done with a finger or other body part, as a universal symbol meaning "Look at that," or "It's that." As for dogs, not just a "Pointer" will "point" but they all do whether by pawing at the door to ask to go out or by nosing their empty kibble dish to say "feed me".
This makes me wonder about humans shaking the head side-to-side to say "No". It is not universal among all cultures. In a few places, nodding means "No", while shaking means "Yes", plus there are various other head wobbles used to impart feelings. Still....
I am finally in the process of reading "The Language Instinct" by Steven Pinker, or at least parts of it. Pinker and Chomsky are no longer considered revolutionary but the book is still interesting.
As for cats, as far as I can see, they sometimes point with just their eyes. You really have to pay attention! And when it comes to saying good morning to my cat, I'm still trying to perfect my slow blink.
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