There are two reasons for posting the opening para of this Speccie article:
(a) It's fun and leads on to an interesting story on animal communication…
(b) Note how easily you can turn it from a para with a single masculine gender into the neutral gender using what I call the "singular 'they'", without doing violence to its felicity. And shouldn't we, if we can, make this little blow against "toxic masculinity"? After all, don't women own pets too? Most assuredly, and likely in greater numbers than men.
Random interesting fact: adult cats only meow to humans, not to each other. I did not know that.
/snip:
The reality of animal communication (or, more precisely, our belief in that reality) is a fact underwritten not by science but by direct experience. A dog owner knows that his dog communicates with him because he makes eye contact with it, notices its body movements, listens to its barks and whines and yips, and associates all of these actions with the contexts in which they occur and the actions that take place before and after such 'signals' have been sent. The owner unscientifically — but naturally and effortlessly — projects into the dog a sense of awareness and autonomy similar to the one he himself possesses. Since this projection is rewarded day after day with actions and responses by the dog that are consistent and expected, he quickly comes to 'know' that his dog communicates.
My neutral version:
The reality of animal communication (or, more precisely, our belief in that reality) is a fact underwritten not by science but by direct experience. Dog owners know that their dog communicates with them because they make eye contact with it, notice its body movements, listen to its barks and whines and yips, and associate all of these actions with the contexts in which they occur and the actions that take place before and after such 'signals' have been sent. The owners unscientifically — but naturally and effortlessly — project into the dog a sense of awareness and autonomy similar to the one they themself possess. Since this projection is rewarded day after day with actions and responses by the dog that are consistent and expected, they quickly come to 'know' that their dog communicates.
Painless, no? (Just a quasi neologism: "themself").
Now read on McRuff…
