Talking to dolphins

A previous post discussed Stephen Frye’s new tv series, in which he dismissed the language abilities of apes.  The excerpt from a longer article below gives more respect to animals’ abilities.

“It was a childhood fascination with astronomy which drove him to where he is today and resulted in him joining SETI, an independent, non-political group of academics whose aim is to search for signs of intelligent life beyond our planet.

And it was his obsession with SETI which lead him to begin studying dolphins, which, he says, are the closest thing we have to aliens on this planet.

He explained why he believes it will be possible to converse with dolphins in his lifetime and how such a breakthrough would help us if aliens ever did dial earth.”

Here is the link:
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/meet_the_leeds_academic_qualified_to_talk_to_dolphins_and_aliens_1_3932739

animal language, linguistics, linguistics in the classroom, the origin of language

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