Studying Animal Languages Without Translation: An Insight from Ants
The Author of this new volume on ant communication demonstrates that information theory is a valuable tool for studying the natural communication of animals. To do so, she pursues a fundamentally new approach to studying animal communication and “linguist
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Studying Animal Languages Without Translation: An Insight from Ants
Studying Animal Languages Without Translation: An Insight from Ants
Zhanna Reznikova
Studying Animal Languages Without Translation: An Insight from Ants
Zhanna Reznikova Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals of SB RAS Novosibirsk State University Novosibirsk Russia
ISBN 978-3-319-44916-6 ISBN 978-3-319-44918-0 DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44918-0
(eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016959596 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
Communication systems of animals as well as their cognitive abilities have been a matter of special interest to biologists, psychologists, linguists, and researchers in many other fields including robotics and artificial intelligence. From time immemorial, people have been dreaming about understanding animal “languages”. However, decoding the function and meaning of animal communications is a notoriously difficult problem. The problem of cracking animals’ codes have become especially attractive since the great “linguistic” potential was discovered in several highly social and intelligent species by means of intermediary artificial languages. Being applied to apes, dolphins, and grey parrots, this method has revealed astonishing mental skills in the subjects. However, surprisingly little is known as yet about natural communication systems even of those species that were involved in languagetraining experiments based on adopted human languages. Explorers of animal “languages” thus have met a complex problem of resolving the contradiction between their knowledge about significant “linguistic” and cognitive potential in some species and limitations in understanding
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