Animal Language Yule George 1996 The Study of

Animal Language Yule, George (1996). The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (chapter 4)

Animal Language ¬Do animals understand spoken language? ¬Whoa to horses they stop ¬Heel to dogs they follow at heel ¬Standard explanation: ¬S R (Stimulus – Response)

Teaching chimpanzees ¬Luella and Winthrop KELLOG (1930) ¬Infant chimpanzee Gua ¬Raised together with their infant son ¬Gua understood about 100 words but did not say any of them

Teaching chimpanzees ¬Catherine and Keith HAYES (1940 s) ¬reared Viki as if she were a human child ¬shaped her mouth as she produced sounds ¬Viki managed to produce words: mama, papa and cup (poorly articulated)

Teaching chimpanzees ¬Beatrix and Allan GARDNER (1966) ¬Female chimpanzee Washoe ¬American sign language ¬Over period of 3 ½ years ¬Washoe used signs for more than 100 words (airplane, banana, window, woman, you. . . )

Washoe ¬developed the ability to produce sentences ¬Gimme tickle, more fruit, open food drink (refrigerator) ¬understood far more signs than she could actually produce

Teaching chimpanzees ¬Ann and David Premack (1972) ¬chimpanzee Sarah ¬set of plastic shapes for communicating ¬shapes represented words e. g. blue triangle apple

Sarah ¬vertical order to build sentences ¬Mary give chocolate Sarah. ¬understood complex structures such as: ¬If Sarah put red and green, Mary give Sarah chocolate.

Teaching chimpanzees ¬Duane Rumbaugh (1977) ¬chimpanzee Lana ¬used artificial language Yerkish ¬set of symbols on a large keyboard linked to a computer

Lana ¬could press up to four symbols in the correct sequence to produce messages ¬e. g. : please machine give water.

Teaching chimpanzees ¬Herbert Terrace (1979) ¬arguments against the evidence of linguistic abilities in animals ¬chimp: Nim Chimsky (play on the linguist Noam Chomsky)

Nim Chimsky ¬American Sign Language under controlled conditions ¬videotaping of classroom activities ¬over a two year period

Nim Chimsky ¬produced a large number of single-word signs ¬developed two-word combinations such as more drink, give banana ¬Nim’s longer utterances were simply a repetition of simpler structures, not an expansion into more complex structures

Similar experiments ¬Clever Hans: German horse ¬could use his hoof beats to answer arithmetical questions ¬responded to subtle visual clues

Dolphins ¬ Buzz and Doris (1960 s) ¬ Means of signalling across an opaque barrier ¬ Doris was able to tell Buzz how he could get a fish snack ¬ when Doris saw a flashing light she had to press a paddle on the left hand side and tell Buzz to do the same ¬ when the light was kept steady Doris had to press the right hand paddle

Dolphins ¬behaviour was just conditioned responses ¬Doris would continue to tell Buzz when he could see the light himself and even when he was taken out of the tank

Noam Chomsky ¬‘the acquisition of even the barest rudiments of language is quite beyond the capacity of an otherwise intelligent ape. ‘