INTRODUCTION
- Scientists and laymen have long been interested in the possibility that dolphins and humans could engage in meaningful conversations of some sort
- Early studies of dolphin communication and subsequent speculations concerning human-dolphin communication contributed to the notion that dolphins have sophisticated communication systems and to the belief that dolphins could converse with humans in much the same way that humans converse with one another if we could discover a common ground
- These ideas have garnered considerable support in the media and popular literature, resulting in the prevailing myth that dolphins and humans can communicate in ways that rival, if not surpass, human-human communication
- The truth, however, is quite different from the myth.
- Although humans and dolphins can certainly communicate with one another, communication between dolphins and humans has been quite limited to date
- We know precious little about the actual functions and content of dolphin communication systems, but we do know that humans can communicate a wide range of information to one another during conversational exchanges
- Although it is possible that dolphins also exchange a variety of forms of information with one another, such communication among dolphins has yet to be demonstrated
- At present, the safest conclusion concerning dolphin-human communication is that meaningful exchanges of information between humans and dolphins are qualitatively different from those that occur when humans converse
- There is no compelling scientific evidence that humans and dolphins have or even can engage in meaningful conversations that involve mutual exchanges of information. Moreover, there is not a single convincing anecdote to suggest that a true conversation between a human and a dolphin has ever taken place.
WHY THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN COMMUNICATION AND CONVERSATION IS IMPORTANT?
- Conversations involve communication, but not all communication is conversational
- Communication may be defined as the use of signals to convey information from a sender to a receiver
- The transmission of information by the sender may be intentional but can also be unintentional
- Thus, the intent of the signaler is not an essential component of communication – as long as the receiver receives the information, communication has occurred
- Using this definition, there is no doubt that dolphins communicate in a variety of ways, including the use of sound, touch, posture, and movements
- However, many species exchange information and so such communication is common among non-human animals
- The existence of communication systems in a species does not entail the ability to communicate with other species, let alone engage in conversations with them
- Dolphins’ use of sound has received far more attention than the other modalities
- relatively little about the precise functions of dolphin signals. For example, it is likely that dolphins experience emotions. Given that they are social animals, it is also likely that dolphins possess the ability to interpret another dolphin’s emotion state (Kuczaj, Highfill, Makecha, & Byerly, 2013). However, the manner in which they do so is unknown, as is the extent to which dolphins use sounds to express emotions
- Although dolphins clearly communicate with one another (and sometimes with us), there is no conclusive evidence that wild dolphins communicate with the intent to share information or change another’s perspective
- It is possible (perhaps even likely) that they do so, but it is also possible that much or even all of dolphin communication occurs unintentionally
- Even if some dolphin communication is intentional, conversations require more than one-way intentional communication events
- definition of communication requires the transmission of information from one being to another and a decision by the receiver about how to act on this information.
- Conversation requires much more than this
- Conversations are intentional and require cooperation among those involved in the conversation
- communication can occur in the absence of cooperation
- A signaler may communicate something to a receiver without one or both parties intending to engage in a communicative act. This is not the case for conversations
- meaningful conversations only occur when all members involved in a conversation are cooperating
- human conversations are implicitly governed by a number of rules, or conversational principles
- Conversations, then, are rule-governed. Without some sort of conversational principles, conversation is impossible
- It is not surprising, then, that the rules that govern turn-taking in human conversations may be universal across human languages
- Regardless of the language being spoken, speakers who were engaged in conversations tended to avoid speaking at the same time but also avoided long bouts of silence between turns
- Moreover, when silences occurred between turns, it tended to be for the same reasons across different cultures. Silences were more likely to precede indefinite answers to questions than definite answers. Silences also occurred more often when a speaker provided a negative answer to a question compared to a positive answer
- Unfortunately, we know very little about the extent to which dolphins engage in turn-taking behavior while communicating with other dolphins (let alone with humans).
- In a very real sense, successful conversations require that participants take into account others’ perspectives, expectations, knowledge, and emotional states. These abilities are commonly referred to as “theory of mind”
- Although data suggesting that dolphins are able to consider others’ mental states are sprinkled throughout the literature, the question of whether dolphins’ theory of mind is sufficient for them to participate in conversations has not been answered.
ADVANCES IN DOLPHIN-HUMAN COMMUNICATION WILL REQUIRE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF DOLPHIN-DOLPHIN COMMUNICATION
- We know that dolphins produce a variety of sounds that may be communicatively significant
- Some of these sounds are inaudible to humans, and so require specialized equipment for scientists interested in the communicative functions of such sounds
- To further complicate the problem of studying natural dolphin communication, humans have evolved to localize sounds in air and so find it difficult to precisely localize sounds underwater.
- This means that even when we do perceive a dolphin sound underwater, we often experience difficulty in determining which dolphin produced the sound
- Given that dolphins are social animals, it is not unusual for multiple dolphins to be producing sounds simultaneously or in rapid succession, and the inability to apprehend which dolphin is producing what sound has hindered our understanding of dolphin communication.
- However, as daunting as the problems of hearing and localizing sounds are, it is even more difficult to determine what these sounds mean
- human languages can be segmented into phonemes, morphemes, words, or sentences
- Larson’s example illustrates the problem of determining the units used in dolphin communication systems
- The inability to identify units makes it very difficult to ascertain the meanings of the sounds one hears
- Are the whistles used as contact calls a single unit or some combination of smaller units? If dolphins use some clicks to signal emotional state and/or intent to communicate, is such information contained in a single click or a series of clicks? If a series of clicks, how many clicks are necessary? How do these clicks differ from those used in echolocation?
- As a consequence of our lack of understanding of the units used in dolphin communication, we do not know the extent to which these units are categorically perceived
- Categorical perception of communicative signals is an inherent component of human speech processing, and young human infants use categorical perception to process human speech sounds
- This means that humans process speech sounds in terms of categories. Decisions about speech sounds rest on whether a sound falls into a category of similar sounds rather than simply on whether or not a sound is identical to another sound.
- Categorical perception has been found in a number of species, but we have no evidence at this time that dolphins do so.
- For anyone who has traveled to a country in which they did not understand the language, it should not be surprising that determining the units of a communication system is only part of the problem. What do these units mean? We are not very good at deciphering units and meanings for human languages that we find strange (i.e., outside our normal experience).
- Flexible communication systems, such as those used by humans, consist of myriad relations between symbols and meanings, which often makes the use of simple one-to-one correspondences between contexts and symbols inadequate to accurately identify meanings even if we know what the units of the communicative system are. When we do not know the units, the problem is magnified a thousand-fold.
- Dolphin communication may be flexible (Kuczaj & Makecha, 2008; Tyack, 1999), and so the translation of dolphin signals will require both the determination of the units that dolphins use when communicating and a comparison of the use of individual units in isolation and with other units in a variety of contexts. These sorts of comparisons do not completely avoid Quine’s (1960) “indeterminacy of translation,” but they will facilitate more accurate hypotheses about the structure and function of dolphin communication systems.
CAN WE CONVERSE WITH DOLPHINS?
- Although we cannot say for certain that dolphin and humans will never converse, the cross-species communication that has been documented to date falls far short of conversations
- At the very least, the lack of success in this area suggests that we are a long way from achieving anything like human-human discourse when we communicate with dolphins
- And it may very well be the case that conversations between dolphins and humans are impossible.
- This does not mean that dolphins and humans cannot communicate, for they certainly can and do communicate, but such communication is qualitatively different from human-human communication
- Dolphin-dolphin communication may also be limited in comparison to human-human communication
- It is certainly the case that dolphins have never been reported to discuss among themselves the possibility of communicating with humans
- Even if it proves to be impossible to converse with dolphins, it is essential that we continue to unravel the manner in which dolphins communicate with one another
- I can communicate with my dog. But do I have conversations with my dog? Well, if I do, they’re very one-sided,” one has a succinct and apt summary of the current state of affairs insofar as dolphin-human conversations are concerned. Communication between dolphins and humans is possible (albeit in a very limited way). Conversations are not.
CREDITS
Are Conversations Between Dolphins And Humans Possible?
Researcher – Stan A. Kuczaj Ii
