# Why do dogs and cats understand the concept of language if they can’t speak? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2023, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998 "2023-06-23T15:28:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/21 "2023-06-23T16:39:35Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > If dogs and cats _don’t_ have language, then how do they learn parts of ours? I’d presume that they’d have no conception of the process of matching sounds with ideas or messages. Pavlov famously conditioned dogs to associate the ringing of a bell with being fed. Isn’t that an example of matching sounds with ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/22 "2023-06-23T16:40:28Z")
Can we distinguish between communication and language? If my face expresses fear you’ll probably look around to find the problem yet I’ve said nothing to you. And, I submit, we can recognize fear in most mammals. The only common ground is being a mammal. Communication has occurred. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/23 "2023-06-23T16:42:03Z")
The difference is that they hear “sit”, and they’re trained to sit. It could just as well be a blue light, a air horn, a raspberry sound, tapping them three times on the head, and so forth. I feel like _language_ takes more than that- this is not much more different than ringing a bell and a dog salivating. It’s communication, but in the same way that me making some kind of drink gesture and pointing at someone else’s beer, then myself communicates that I want a beer. It’s not _language_ though- my gestures aren’t structured, they’re not standardized, or anything that would constitute a language. If it was language, I feel like we’d be able to issue more complex commands to dogs - things like “after you sit, then come” without having to do it in a discrete fashion- getting the dog to sit, then having them come. And you could combine them in any order- you could tell a dog “Stay then sit” or “Sit then stay” and they’d be able to parse those sentences and do the same thing. Dogs can’t do that, unless you teach them that “sit then stay” means one thing, and “Stay then sit” means another. And if you do that, then say 'Sit then stay then come", that’s a third set of sounds that don’t correspond to anything in their mind. Language is in the structure and the standardization- people agree upon a set of sounds/gestures/whatever that are standardized and structured to convey information. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/24 "2023-06-23T16:44:09Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Can we distinguish between communication and language? Charles Hockett tried. > **[Hockett's design features](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockett%27s_design_features#)** > > Hockett's Design Features are a set of features that characterize human language and set it apart from animal communication. They were defined by linguist Charles F. Hockett in the 1960s. He called these characteristics the design features of language. Hockett originally believed there to be 13 design features. While primate communication utilizes the first 9 features, the final 4 features (displacement, productivity, cultural transmission, and duality) are reserved for humans.\[citation needed\] H... > [@](#): > > [Hockett](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_F._Hockett) distinguished language from communication. While almost all animals communicate in some way, a communication system is only considered language if it possesses _all_ of the above characteristics. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/25 "2023-06-23T16:55:02Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Signaling is when you use a single sign to communicate a single meaning. Language is when you’re using multiple signs and the organization of those signs is what is communicating the meaning. Irene Pepperberg’s African Grey Parrot, Alex, could say “corn” and then be given corn. He also used “soft” and “hard” to differentiate the two types of corn. Was that language? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/26 "2023-06-23T17:00:25Z")
I recall reading something that dogs have evolved to understand a human pointing at something is meaningful and they understand to go to where you are pointing (or at least look that way to see what you are on about). Apparently most animals are oblivious if we point at something and ignore it. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/27 "2023-06-23T17:15:31Z")
Something you need to take into account when considering animals and their ability to learn our languages: _our_ experiences as humans invariably (or almost invariably) involves growing up surrounded by people communicating with each other, and trying to communicate to us, via language. So it’s one of our formative experiences. The very tiny handful of cases where a human has reached adulthood or even advanced-age childhood as an unlanguaged person, and only got exposed to it then, show that it’s difficult to learn and that such individuals find it complicated to encode their thoughts into speakable words or to figure out what others are trying to communicate to them. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/28 "2023-06-23T17:18:08Z")
Dogs can associate sound stimuli with actions. If the doorbell rings, that means someone is at the door. If the can opener runs, that means that food is going to be available. If the human says “walk” that means we’re about to go outside. IMHO, none of these things rise to the level of “language”. There is no syntax, no grammar and just the barest simple association of sound with action. The doorbell is not communicating with the dog via language, and neither is the human. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/29 "2023-06-23T17:36:40Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Human speech is undoubtedly language. A creature able to make exactly one sound, which it does at random, is almost certainly not language. Why do you think dogs and cats “make exactly one sound” and do it “at random”? I’ve seen no evidence that either of those are true, and plenty that the opposite are true. For example, cats actually have about 50 sounds they make which have a variety of meanings, and which are used fairly consistently in line with those circumstances. It helps to think of the level of communication between cats and humans as being on par with that of toddlers and parents. The language will relate almost entirely to three areas: 1) things they want/like (food, attention, to go out, etc); 2) things they don’t want/like (dogs, rain, that way you’re petting them, etc), and 3) how they feel (happy, angry, depressed, in pain, etc). And humans and their pets will build up a vocabulary of mutually-understood sounds and actions based on how each react to what the other do - essentially, they train each other to learn a mutual language. You can develop a more nuanced version of the above, but you’re never going to be able to explain what a magnet is to them. But humans can also learn something of the language that cats use amongst themselves (much of which is nonverbal but still). For example, [there is a sound cats make when they want another cat to come play](https://www.tiktok.com/@alecanewman/video/7245102520836689194) - a friendly summons. I tried this on my cat the other night and he immediately began searching the house for the “other cat”, responding with a seeking call I’ve heard several cats use when they are looking for others farther away - it almost sounds like a “hello?”. Clearly the sound I made meant something to him. That’s language. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/30 "2023-06-23T17:44:12Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Why do you think dogs and cats “make exactly one sound” and do it “at random”? I’ve seen no evidence that either of those are true, and plenty that the opposite are true. I think LSLGuy was setting out the two extremes; human use of language and animals that just make random sounds. Cats and dogs belong somewhere between these two extremes. They make sounds that have a meaning but they don’t use language. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/31 "2023-06-23T18:04:09Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Charles Hockett tried. As far as I’m aware, Hockett’s ideas about “human language vs animal communication” are still accepted to this day. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/32 "2023-06-23T18:06:11Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Dogs can associate sound stimuli with actions. If the doorbell rings, that means someone is at the door. If the can opener runs, that means that food is going to be available. If the human says “walk” that means we’re about to go outside. IMHO, none of these things rise to the level of “language”. There is no syntax, no grammar and just the barest simple association of sound with action. The doorbell is not communicating with the dog via language, and neither is the human. Dogs go further than that with language. They understand the concept of getting or finding things by name for instance. They do understand some concepts that can’t be communicated just be language. Add hand signals, voice intonation, and facial expressions and then more complex concepts can be communicated such as jump over that ottoman and get your toy. At some point I can see their level of intellect exceeding their ability to use language. This may have to do with the evolutionary differences in humans brains and physiology that enables us to use language so effectively. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/33 "2023-06-23T18:08:48Z")
Well, I suppose I got of the subject of language. Body language is a language INHO. So are computer languages. My dog sucks at coding though. No thumbs. 😀 ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/34 "2023-06-23T18:12:24Z")
Fascinating topic. We’ve always had dogs and lavish attention on them. There’s definitely a mutual understanding of sorts, but it makes me wonder about certain things. For example, what do their names actually mean to them? How do they process it? Is it just their own, personal “come here” word? Their own “hey you” word? Or are their thoughts complex enough to grok that this word _is_ him/her, in the way that we do? We may never know, but if I say to Jack, “Where’s Ozzie?,” Jack goes looking for Ozzie. So maybe…. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/35 "2023-06-23T18:17:50Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Add hand signals, voice intonation, and facial expressions and then more complex concepts can be communicated such as jump over that ottoman and get your toy. What a dog can’t learn, though, is to displace the command based strictly on transitory verbal cues: - _“Wait one minute, and then jump over that ottoman and get your toy”._ - _“Next time the mailman comes, jump over that ottoman and get your toy”_ - _"When_ Stranger Things _starts, jump over that ottoman and get your toy"_ Specifically excluded are non-transitory verbal cues to delay the command: “_Wait … wait … wait … now jump over that ottoman and get your toy!_” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/36 "2023-06-23T18:20:21Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > My dog sucks at coding though. No thumbs. That’s why you should always hire raccoons to run your IT department. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/37 "2023-06-23T18:34:21Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > For example, what do their names actually mean to them? How do they process it? Is it just their own, personal “come here” word? Their own “hey you” word? Or are their thoughts complex enough to grok that this word _is_ him/her, in the way that we do? Anecdotal but I have had several pets living together at the same time and each only ever responded to their own name. Cats and dogs both. The cats would respond by looking at me but otherwise ignore me. The dogs would wait for the next queue from me (or realize I wasn’t serious and then ignore me). I tried testing them with usual trigger sentences but with different names and they’d not respond. Clearly each knew their name but whether it only meant, “a sound I need to hear before paying some attention” or, “that’s me…I am that word” I cannot say. I’d think the association is so tight that they may well think, “that noise means me so that is my special noise.” I admit I am amazed when I see dogs responding to other languages. Of course they will, no mystery there. But I think that is a dog that knows more Japanese than I do. Also worth noting my dogs understood the same words spoken by someone else. They had some ability to discern the same words if said close enough to how I’d say it. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/38 "2023-06-23T18:46:18Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Clearly each knew their name but whether it only meant, “a sound I need to hear before paying some attention” or, “that’s me…I am that word” I cannot say. > > I’d think the association is so tight that they may well think, “that noise means me so that is my special noise.” That’s my gut feeling as well, that there’s at least some degree of “Jack” equals “me!” in how they process it. But that may be wishful thinking. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/39 "2023-06-23T18:52:20Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > [@Gyrate](#): > > > > Why do you think dogs and cats “make exactly one sound” and do it “at random”? I’ve seen no evidence that either of those are true, and plenty that the opposite are true. > > I think LSLGuy was setting out the two extremes; human use of language and animals that just make random sounds. Cats and dogs belong somewhere between these two extremes. They make sounds that have a meaning but they don’t use language. Exactly. Thank you. Clearly dogs and cats have mental states and have communication. But IMO if the word “language” is to have much real meaning, whatever those animals do is far short of language. Said another way, if dogs and cats have “language” then we need another term for whatever it is that humans do that’s several orders of magnitude more powerful. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998/40 "2023-06-23T19:02:56Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Try “speaking” to your dog with the words out of order. I bet it’ll work just as well. Or with nonsense words. One thing that I have to tell my groomers from time to time is that dogs don’t know English. So, when they tell the dog, “Don’t sit”, they understand both words, but don’t know what is being asked of them. They don’t understand how a negative works, so the only part of the command it understands is “sit”. Language is more than individual words, it is understanding how to put those words together and interpret them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-dogs-and-cats-understand-the-concept-of-language-if-they-can-t-speak/985998.md?page=3)