15803. DOLPHIN COMMUNICATION. This paper provides an overview and analysis of dolphin communication patterns and systems. The analysis explores the channels of communication used by dolphins, considers the normal environmental limitations on communication related to life in an aquatic versus terrestrial environment, discusses the cognitive and sensory basis of dolphin communication systems, and examines the evidence that dolphins have language. While the focus of the analysis is on intraspecies dolphin communication, the possibility of dolphin-human communication is necessarily also considered in that assessments of dolphin language potential often involve investigations of human-dolphin symbolic interaction. KEYWORDS: animal communications dolphin language intraspecies interspecies communication. 12 pages, 42 footnotes, 18 bibliographic sources. 3,740 words.