<
https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20250204-the-linguists-studying-how-cows-talk-to-each-other-in-language>
'Leonie Cornips was long overdue for her coffee break. The chilly autumn air
made a hot drink feel enticing. But Cornips was busy. She was a couple of hours
into her work with a small herd of dairy cows. If she left now, she would lose
something that would take time to recover. Cornips and the herd had entered a
delicate, shared space she calls "the rhythm of the cow".
Cornips is a sociolinguist at the Meertens Institute in Amsterdam in the
Netherlands. The scholars who pass through the institute's ornate doorway
usually specialise in the study of Dutch language and culture. The soft-spoken
researcher earned her academic laurels in the 1990s, and she still studies
variations in syntax between different dialects in the Netherlands. But in
addition to this, Cornips' work has more recently taken what professionals in
the field call "the animal turn".
For years, Cornips has spent her summer holidays on a farm. She was struck from
the start by the different personalities of individual cows. She read an essay
by a philosopher that asked why linguists never study animals. It affected her
deeply. Cornips felt that cows had the intelligence and social habits to be
good research subjects for a linguist. As a Dutch person, she also knew they
were cultural icons in a nation with a passion for cheese. So she turned her
professional skills to cows.
Humans have assumed for centuries that the ability to use language is a measure
of our superiority. There is even an academic term for it: "logocentrism",
meaning those who use words (from the Greek logos, meaning "word" or "reason")
occupy a privileged position. Language, say many linguists, is what makes us
human. Animals may grunt, bark or chirp, but they do not possess anything that
counts as language.
Cornips is using her work with dairy cows to push back on this idea. It extends
half a century of effort that began with Jane Goodall's work with chimpanzees
and Roger Payne's recording of humpback whales in the 1960s in an effort to
show that humans may not be as linguistically unique as we had assumed.'
Via
Positive.News
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
