Langage et communications animales.

Abstract

Results on animal communications have exploded these last 20 years. If nobody still thinks that animal may have a kind of language as humans have, complexity of animal communications have been shown to be much more complex that what had been previously thought: traditions, meta-communication, innovation and abilities to manipulate information through deception, especially among primates, as well as great plasticity in referential processes have been observed. Simple syntaxes and dialogic situations have also been shown among animal communications, but no species studied to date seem able to naturally refer to presentles phenomena. We nevertheless must be cautious. Our intuitions about animal communications are often wrong. Examples of not yet solved problems abond. We can refer to what G. Bateson said about inability of animal to express negation, suggestion by P. Marier that play behaviour is the great analog with human language in animals, or D. Dennett's about the lack of secrecy among vervet monkeys. It seems to be an illusory belief to look for THE great feature of human language, compared with animal communications. It is more fruitful to consider that a number of meaningful differences distinguish language and animal communications. Such a careful and technical position being adopted here had already been defended by British biologist J.B.S. Haldane in the fifties, but it is still the best one.