Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Dialogical Communicative Interaction between Humans and Elephants: an Experiment in Semiotic Alignment

  • Published:
Biosemiotics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Theoretical and empirical contributions to the understanding of communicative interactions between heterospecifics are scarce and tend to apply a monological model of communication that focuses on the transfer of information from signallers to receivers. This study relies on an alternative model of communication, semiotic alignment, which sees communicative interaction as a dialogical process of joint semiosis resulting in the alignment of the interactants’ own-worlds (Umwelten). We conducted an experiment where dyads composed of an elephant instruction-giver and a human instruction-receiver needed to engage in dynamic and interactive communication in order to solve a cooperative object-choice task. Our results showed that dyads were able to solve the task well above chance levels. Moreover, cross-recurrence analysis revealed that interactants were synchronizing referential indexical gestures (pointing with a limb) throughout the experiment. However, we were not able to confirm a direct correlation between joint deixis and experimental outcomes, presumably because these outcomes are dependent on other forms of joint semiosis not analysed in this study.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson, A., Bader, M., Bard, E., Boyle, E., Doherty, G. M., Garrod, S., ... & Weinert, R. (1991). The HCRC map task corpus. Language and Speech, 34, 351–366.

  • Anderson, J. R., Sallaberry, P., & Barbier, H. (1995). Use of experimenter-given cues during object-choice tasks by capuchin monkeys. Animal Behaviour, 49, 201–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, I., & Kashio, M. (Eds.). (2002). Giants on our hands: proceedings of the international workshop on the domesticated Asian Elephant. Bangkok: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bates, L. A., Poole, J. H., & Byrne, R. W. (2008). Elephant cognition. Current Biology, 18(13), 544–546.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Branigan, H. P., Pickering, M. J., & Cleland, A. A. (2000). Syntactic coordination in dialogue. Cognition, 75, B13–B25.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brennan, S. E., & Clark, H. H. (1996). Conceptual pacts and lexical choice in conversation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 22, 1482–1493.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Byrne, R. (2003). Animal communication: What makes a dog able to understand its master? Current Biology, 13, 347–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (1996). The effect of humans on the cognitive development of apes. In A. Russon, K. Bard, & S. Parker (Eds.), Reaching into thought: The minds of the great apes (pp. 371–403). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, H. H. (1996). Using Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cleland, A. A., & Pickering, M. J. (2003). The use of lexical and syntactic information in language production: Evidence from the priming of noun-phrase structure. Journal of Memory and Language, 49, 214–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dale, R., & Spivey, M. J. (2006). Unraveling the dyad: Using recurrence analysis to explore patterns of syntactic coordination between children and caregivers in conversation. Language Learning, 56, 391–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duranton, C., & Gaunet, F. (2016). Behavioural synchronization from an ethological perspective: Overview of its adaptive value. Adaptive Behavior, 24(3), 181–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fowler, M. E., & Mikota, S. K. (2006). Biology, medicine, and surgery of elephants. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fusaroli, R., Rączaszek-Leonardi, J., & Tylén, K. (2014). Dialog as interpersonal synergy. New Ideas in Psychology, 32, 147–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garrod, S., & Anderson, A. (1987). Saying what you mean in dialogue: A study in conceptual and semantic coordination. Cognition, 27, 181–218.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gaunet, F. (2010). How do guide dogs and pet dogs (Canis familiaris) ask their owners for their toy and for playing? Animal Cognition, 13, 311–323.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, J. A., & Knapp, M. L. (Eds.). (2013). Nonverbal communication. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hare, B., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (1998). Communication of food location between human and dog (Canis familiaris). Evolution of Communication, 2(1), 137–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrigan, J. A., Rosenthal, R., & Scherer, K. R. (Eds.). (2005). The new handbook of methods in nonverbal behavior research. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart, B. L., Hart, L. A., & Pinter-Wollman, N. (2007). Large brains and cognition: Where do elephants fit in? Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 32, 86–98.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W. T. (2002). The faculty of language: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science, 298, 1569–1579.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haywood, S. L., Pickering, M. J., & Branigan, H. P. (2005). Do speakers avoid ambiguities during dialogue? Psychological Science, 16, 362–366.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heberlein, M. T., Turner, D. C., Range, F., & Virányi, Z. (2016). A comparison between wolves, Canis lupus, and dogs, Canis familiaris, in showing behaviour towards humans. Animal Behaviour, 122, 59–66.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Irie-Sugimoto, N., Kobayashi, T., Sato, T., & Hasegawa, T. (2008). Evidence of means–end behavior in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). Animal Cognition, 11, 359–365.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1983). Mental models: Towards a cognitive science of language, inference, and consciousness. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kipp, M. (2014). ANVIL: A universal video research tool. In J. Durand, U. Gut, & G. Kristofferson (Eds.), Handbook of corpus phonology (pp. 420–436). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kostan, K. M. (2002). The evolution of mutualistic interspecific communication: Assessment and management across species. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 116(2), 206–209.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Krams, I. (2010). Interspecific communication. In M. D. Breed & J. Moore (Eds.), Encylopedia of animal behavior (Vol. 2, pp. 196–202). Oxford: Academic.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Krause, M. A., Leavens, D. A., Udell, M. A. R., & Skopos, L. (2018). Animal pointing: Changing trends and findings from 30 years of research. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 132(3), 326–345.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lair, R. C. (1997). Gone astray: the care and management of the Asian elephant in domesticity. Bangkok: FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langbauer, W. R. (2000). Elephant communication. Zoo Biology, 19, 425–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Linell, P. (2009). Rethinking language, mind and world dialogically: interactional and contextual theories of human sense-making. Charlotte: Information Age Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Louwerse, M. M., Dale, R., Bard, E. G., & Jeuniaux, P. (2012). Behavior matching in multimodal communication is synchronized. Cognitive Science, 36, 1404–1426.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • MacLean, E. L., Matthews, L. J., Hare, B. A., Nunn, C. L., Anderson, R. C., Aureli, F., Brannon, E. M., Call, J., Drea, C. M., Emery, N. J., Haun, D. B. M., Herrmann, E., Jacobs, L. F., Platt, M. L., Rosati, A. G., Sandel, A. A., Schroepfer, K. K., Seed, A. M., Tan, J., van Schaik, C. P., & Wobber, V. (2012). How does cognition evolve? Phylogenetic comparative psychology. Animal Cognition, 15(2), 223–238.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Malavasi, R., & Huber, L. (2016). Evidence of heterospecific referential communication from domestic horses (Equus caballus) to humans. Animal Cognition, 19(5), 899–909.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maran, T., Martinelli, D., & Turovski, A. (Eds.). (2011). Readings in zoosemiotics. Berlin. Boston: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maran, T., Tønnessen, M., Oma, K. A., Kiiroja, L., Magnus, R., Mäekivi, N., et al. (2016). Animal Umwelten in a changing world: zoosemiotic perspectives. Tartu: University of Tartu Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Marwan, N., Romano, M. C., Thiel, M., & Kurths, J. (2007). Recurrence plots for the analysis of complex systems. Physics Reports, 438, 237–329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGregor, P., & Peake, T. M. (2000). Communication networks: Social environments for receiving and signalling behaviour. Acta Ethologica, 2, 71–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miklósi, Á., & Soproni, K. (2006). A comparative analysis of animals’ understanding of the human pointing gesture. Animal Cognition, 9, 81–93.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miklósi, Á., Polgárdi, R., Topál, J., & Csányi, V. (2000). Intentional behaviour in dog-human communication: An experimental analysis of showing behaviour in the dog. Animal Cognition, 3, 159–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nair, S., Balakrishnan, R., Seelamantula, C. S., & Sukumar, R. (2009). Vocalizations of wild Asian elephants (Elephas maximus): Structural classification and social context. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 126(5͒), 2766–2778.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owings, D. H., Rowe, M. P., & Rundus, A. S. (2002). The rattling sound of rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) as a communicative resource for ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) and burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 116(2), 197–205.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peirce, C. S. (1932). The collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, M. J., & Garrod, S. (2004). Toward a mechanistic psychology of dialogue. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27, 169–226.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, M. J., & Garrod, S. (2006). Alignment as the basis for successful communication. Research on Language and Computation, 4, 203–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pika, S. (2012). The case of referential gestural signaling. Where next? Communicative and Integrative Biology, 5(6), 578–582.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Plotnik, J. M., de Waal, F. B. M., & Reiss, D. (2006). Self-recognition in an Asian elephant. PNAS, 103(45), 17053–17057.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Plotnik, J. M., Pokorny, J. J., Keratimanochaya, T., Webb, C., Beronja, H. F., Hennessy, A., ... & Melville, B. L. (2013). Visual cues given by humans are not sufficient for Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) to find hidden food. PLoS One, 8(4), e61174.

  • Poole, J. H., & Granli, P. K. (2009). ElelphantVoices gestures database. Retrieved from http://www.elephantvoices.org/. Accessed 25 Sept 2018.

  • Rendall, D., Owren, M. J., & Ryan, M. J. (2009). What do animal signals mean? Animal Behaviour, 78, 233–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ribó, I. (2018). Hermeneutics, ecocriticism, and the vanishing elephants of Thailand. In J. C. Ryan (Ed.), South East Asian ecocriticism: theories, practices, prospects (pp. 37–60). Lanham: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ribó, I. (in press). Semiotic alignment: towards a dialogical model of interspecific communication. Semiotica Accepted 18 March 2018.

  • Richardson, D. C., Dale, R., & Kirkham, N. (2007). The art of conversation is coordination: Common ground and the coupling of eye movements during dialogue. Psychological Science, 18, 407–413.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolatti, G., & Arbib, M. A. (1998). Language within our grasp. Trends in Neuroscience, 21, 188–194.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Scarantino, A. (2010). Animal communication between information and influence. Animal Behaviour, 79(6), 1–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schliesinger, J. (2010). Elephants in Thailand 1: mahouts and their cultures today. Bangkok: White Lotus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schober, M. F. (1993). Spatial perspective taking in conversation. Cognition, 47, 1–24.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scott-Phillips, T. C. (2010). Animal communication: Insights from linguistic pragmatics. Animal Behaviour, 79(1), e1–e4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A. (1990). Essays in zoosemiotics. Toronto: Toronto Semiotic Circle; Victoria College in the University of Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A., & Danesi, M. (2000). The forms of meaning: Modeling systems theory and semiotic analysis. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

  • Seyfarth, R. M., & Cheney, D. L. (2003). Signalers and receivers in animal communication. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, J45–J73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seyfarth, R. M., Cheney, D. L., Bergman, T., Fischer, J., Zuberbühler, K., & Hammerschmidt, K. (2010). The central importance of information in studies of animal communication. Animal Behaviour, 80(1), 3–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shannon, C. E. (1948). A mathematical theory of communication. The Bell System Technical Journal, 27, 379–423.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shoshani, J. (1998). Understanding proboscidean evolution: A formidable task. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 13(12), 480–487.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smet, A. F., & Byrne, R. W. (2013). African elephants can use human pointing cues to find hidden food. Current Biology, 23, 2033–2037.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smet, A. F., & Byrne, R. W. (2014). Interpretation of human pointing by African elephants: Generalisation and rationality. Animal Cognition, 17, 1365–1374.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stegmann, U. (Ed.). (2013). Animal communication theory: Information and influence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sukumar, R. (2003). The living elephants: Evolutionary ecology, behavior, and conservation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sukumar, R. (2011). The story of Asia’s elephants. Mumbai: Marg Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tønnessen, M. (2014). Umwelt trajectories. Semiotica, 2014(198), 159–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Townsend, S. W., Koski, S. E., Byrne, R. W., Slocombe, K. E., Bickel, B., Boeckle, M., ... & Glock, H. J. (2017). Exorcising Grice's ghost: An empirical approach to studying intentional communication in animals. Biological Reviews, 92(3), 1427–1433.

  • Udell, M. A., & Wynne, C. D. (2010). Ontogeny and phylogeny: Both are essential to human-sensitive behaviour in the genus Canis. Animal Behaviour, 79(2), e9–e14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uexküll, J. (1926). Theoretical biology. New York: Kegan, Paul, Trench. Trubner and Co..

    Google Scholar 

  • Uexküll, J. (1982). The theory of meaning. Semiotica, 42(1), 25–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veà, J., & Sabater-Pi, J. (1998). Spontaneous pointing behavior in the wild pygmy chimpanzee (pan paniscus). Folia Primatologica, 69, 289–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, M. E., Pickering, M. J., & Branigan, H. P. (2004). Alignment of reference frames in dialogue. In Proceedings of the 26th cognitive science meeting. Mahwah: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westrip, J. R. S., & Bell, M. B. V. (2015). Breaking down the species boundaries: Selective pressures behind interspecific communication in vertebrates. Ethology, 121(8), 725–732.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zwaan, R. A., & Radvansky, G. A. (1998). Situation models in language comprehension and memory. Psychological Bulletin, 123, 162–185.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This project has been supported by grant 611A10017 from Mae Fah Luang University’s 2017-2018 Researcher Fund (FY 201). I wish to thank the undergraduate students who participated in the experiment as well as my research assistant and the Karen mahouts who helped in setting up and conducting the experiment. Also, my thanks to the Ban Ruammit Karen Elephant Camp staff for their support in carrying out the experiment. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers and the editors of Biosemiotics who contributed with their valuable criticism to improve the final paper. Finally, a special thanks to the elephant Chumpon, whose patience and amiability greatly contributed to the smooth running of the experiment.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mae Fah Luang University, 333 Moo 1, Tha Suea, Mueang Chiang Rai, 57100, Thailand

    Ignasi Ribó

Authors
  1. Ignasi Ribó
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ignasi Ribó.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(XLSX 12 kb)

ESM 2

(XLSX 15 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ribó, I. Dialogical Communicative Interaction between Humans and Elephants: an Experiment in Semiotic Alignment. Biosemiotics 12, 305–327 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-019-09354-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-019-09354-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation