Aping LanguageLanguage is regarded, at least in most intellectual traditions, as the quintessential human attribute, at once evidence and source of most that is considered transcendent in us, distinguishing ours from the merely mechanical nature of the beast. Even if language did not have the sacrosanct status it does in our conception of human nature, however, the question of its presence in other species would still promote argument, for we lack any universally accepted, defining features of language, ones that would allow us to identify it unequivocally in another species. Both the role of language in differentiating ours from other species and contention over the crucial attributes of language are responsible for the stridency of the debate over whether nonhuman animals can learn language. Aping Language is a critical assessment of each of the recent experiments designed to impart a language, either natural or invented, to an ape. The performance of the animals in these experiments is compared with the course of semantic and syntactic development in children, both speaking and signing. The book goes on to examine what is known about the neurological, cognitive, and specifically linguistic attributes of our species that subserve language, and it discusses how they might have come into existence. Finally, the communication of nonhuman primates in nature is assayed to consider whether or not it was reasonable to assume, as the experimenters in these projects did, that apes possess an ability to acquire language. |
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Contents
Language evolution and anatomy | 109 |
Primate communication in nature | 128 |
CONCLUSION | 147 |
The Chimpanzee and the Chinese room | 149 |
Notes | 154 |
References | 166 |
Index | 184 |
APES AND LANGUAGE PHYLOGENY | 107 |
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Common terms and phrases
ability according acoustical acquired acquisition action addition analysis animals apes appear articulation associations attributes behavior brain calls chapter child chimpanzee cognitive combinations communication consistent constructions container context contrast correct demonstrated distinct early elements English errors evidence example experimenters experiments fact function Gardners gestures give given grammatical hand human incentive indicate interpretation involved Kanzi Koko Lana Lana's language learned least less lexigrams linguistic meaning monkeys nature noun object observed origin pattern percent performance phonemes phrase possible Premack presented Press primate production question reason reference regard relations relationship request response role rules Rumbaugh Sarah Savage-Rumbaugh seems semantic sentence sequence Sign Language signals similar species speech stimuli structure suggests symbols syntactic tests things trainer University utterances verb vocal Washoe words
Popular passages
Page 11 - Den I felt at der back of my neck der fingers of Bimi. Mein Gott! I tell you dot he talked through dose fingers. It was der deaf-and-dumb alphabet all gomplete. He slide his hairy arm round my neck, und he tilt up my chin und look into my face, shust to see if I understood his talk so well as he understood mine.
Page 54 - I watched really carefully. The chimp's hands are moving constantly. Maybe I missed something, but I don't think so. I just wasn't seeing any signs. The hearing people were logging every movement the chimp made as a sign. Every time the chimp put his finger in his mouth, they'd say, "Oh, he's making the sign for drink," and they'd give him some milk
Page 64 - Yet a skeptic might characterize the animals' performance on these tests as demonstrating only a reliable (80 percent) rate of responding to classes of equivalent stimuli with rotely paired associates.
Page 70 - pigeons can learn to engage in a sustained and natural conversation without human intervention, and that one pigeon can transmit information to another entirely through the use of symbols.
Page 54 - The chimps hold out their hands. They do it all the time, without being taught. They want something, they reach. Those things the people in Reno called signs. Sometimes they'd say, "Oh, amazing, look at that, it's exactly like the ASL sign for give\
Page 54 - They were always complaining because my log didn't show enough signs. All the hearing people turned in logs with long lists of signs. They always saw more signs than I did ... I watched really
Page 54 - They kept all kinds of records. The most important was the logbook of signs. Every time the chimp made a sign, we were supposed to write it down in the log... They were always complaining because my log didn't show enough signs. All the hearing people turned in logs with long lists of signs. They always saw more signs than I did ... I watched really carefully. The chimp's hands
Page 51 - the first words may not have any meaning in the conventional sense. Instead, their utterance may be merely a ritualized part of recurrent activity contexts, only nominally more linguistic than the nonverbal behaviors that also define these contexts
References to this book
Bibliographic information
| Title | Aping Language Themes in the Social Sciences |
| Author | Joel Wallman |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, 1992 |
| ISBN | 0521406668, 9780521406666 |
| Length | 191 pages |
| Subjects | › › Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Psycholinguistics Social Science / Anthropology / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |