The Vocal Sac of a Male Frog

South Central Texas Nature Watcher

 Since 2005

Animal Communications: 

The Vocal Sac of a Male Frog

A Randy Male Sage grouse feathers ruffle.

Some animal communication is inadvertent such as the skunk tail-end or bright contrasting

colors of poisonous Snake

Animals communicate -- without language -- for a variety of purposes. The vocal sac of a male frog, ready to mate, expands;  a randy male sage grouse’s feathers ruffle. Threats provoke communication: a cobra hisses; a porcupine bristle its quills, and a dog respond by barking and baring it teeth. 

Doctor Do-little’s Delusion: Animals and Uniqueness of the human language, 2005 Yale University Press

Axoloti Stanley Greenspan and Stuart G. Shanker proposed a theory in The First Idea of psychological development in which neoteny is seen as crucial for the "development of species-typical capacities" that depend upon a long period of attachment to caregivers for the opportunities to engage in and develop their capacity for emotional communication. Because of the importance of facial expression in the process of interactive signaling, neotenous features, such as hair loss, allow for more efficient and rapid communication of socially important messages that are based on facially expressive emotional signaling.[21]

The First Idea, Shanker and Greenspan, 2004, p. 130

The Actual First Idea

The point is that the syntax of a language involves more than mere combining elements into sequences of words. Sentences  incorporate that kind of structure, to be sure, but also have much more structure, involving abstraction that are not really  apparent in the superficial for of the sentence -- abstractions that allow the same group  of words to communicate  are very different  pieces of information in systematic ways.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanzi