What Can Animal Communication Tell us About Spoken Language Processing by Mind and Machine?

Essay from the year 2007 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics grade: 1 University of Sheffield language: English abstract: In this essay it is described what animal communication can tell us about spoken language processing by mind and machine. First it is explained how animal behaviour influences the human side. Then it is shown what can be learnt on the machine side. In conclusion it can be said that the study of animal communication provides scientists with clues for creating theories of human speech evolution. However more research in the future is necessary to underpin these theories. A number of questions still remain unsolved. The same is true on the machine side for the development of applications that copy animal techniques.