I know they’re just mimicking words and attach no meaning to them but can someone explain why they’re not able to attach meaning to them and form sentences in the way that humans do? I guess the wider question is why humans can’t communicate with animals.
In: Biology
Because they’re not actually talking, they’re just mimicking sounds. They have no idea what they’re saying.
Imagine you only speak English and someone says a line in Spanish to you, you could probably repeat that line back but you wouldn’t know what it means. That’s parrots.
Some Grey Parrots can have conversations, Alex being the most notable but for most parrot species mimicry is a useful skill for keeping other creatures away from you or not drawing suspicion that you are inhabiting an area. It could be thought of as camouflage. They do have an uncanny resemblance to primate brains in structure https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2018/07/12/what-makes-parrots-so-intelligent/
Because saying a word doesn’t mean you understand the word.
If someone says “Straße” (Strasse) to you, you can probably repeat the word back to them but unless you know German you won’t know the word means “street.”
Parrots are not “talking” they’re just repeating sounds they learned. They don’t know what the words mean.
Many parrots don’t actually know what they’re saying, they just know that what they do say elicit certain reactions from you. They’re basically feathered toddlers.
I have a friend who grew up in a house where they called the TV remote “fernbedienung”. She thought it was a made up word that her parents introduced, until she was an adult, and someone pointed out to her, that it’s just the german word for TV remote.
Parrots are the same. They’ll repeat a word, but apply zero meaning to it.
You know when you “meow” to a cat even tho you have no idea what it means, if anything? Same thing.
To step back from the question a little: the purpose of a brain isn’t to be human-like, it’s to help keep the brain-haver alive. Human brains are not “more evolved” or “better” than parrot brains, they’re better at doing human brain things to keep a human alive, and parrot brains are better at doing parrot brain things to keep a parrot alive. Language is a human brain thing, so human brains are better at it.
Parrot brains are bad at understanding the meaning of words for the same reason human brains are bad at instinctively mimicking sounds like a parrot, or learning to map the world by screaming like a bat.
They think like this:
The person who gives me food makes this sound.
When I make the same sound, they smile and give me more food.
I really like food, it’s awesome.
I should make the “give me food” sound more.
Not exactly true. My African Grey parrot promotes “conversation” all the time. When I got up this morning, she said to me, “Good morning!”. I replied back, “Good morning, Lola”. She then asked, “How are you?”. She does this most mornings. She calls the dog when it’s dinner time, she reminds us when it’s bedtime, she greets us when we come into the room, she answers the phone when she hears one ringing, she asks, “who is it?” when she hears the doorbell. All sorts of cause and effect and attempts at “conversation”.
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