When I was a kid, I learned that humans are superior to animals because we re the only ones who use tools. By the time I got to high school, animals had made progress. Turns out many, some as mundane as the common crow , use tools. A few years later, scientists were unburdened of this fallacy as well. Now lower life forms have driven humanity into our last rampart, and it s crumbling fast.
Language is eminently human.
Noam Chomsky, father of the prevailing linguistic paradigm, believes that we are hardwired for language. In effect, our brains automatically seek, decode, and manipulate abstract information from birth. Language, Chomsky says, reflects the machinery that made it, which is universally and uniquely human. His theory explains a lot, such as why all languages are fundamentally similar, and why humans have language, but no animals do. Today, studies strongly suggest that some animals can learn language.