For Chaucer, all living beings communicate - including animals: between each other and with humans - and this idea of a universal relationship conditions his conception of language and translation, at the same time it sheds a particular light on his "decision" to write in English. For him, all species on Earth have their own language, even if the "languages" are quite different. Language being the means of expression of the species, it is always possible to translate, no matter what the limitations of species or space are. For Chaucer these limitations are only illusions, mental phenomena, they do not affect reality, and everything can be translated: texts, words, personality, behaviour, etc. This modern conception of translation that can also be found with Rousseau, treats language as a unique link between man and society.