The Great Ape Language By Patricia Pascual http

The Great Ape Language By Patricia Pascual http: //www. csmonitor. com/Books/2008/0311/p 13 s 01 -bogn. html

Whoa…. Back it Up. Chomsky Said What? NOAM CHOMSKY http: //westernstandard. blogs. com/shotgun/2008/10/noam-chomsky-ca. html • What Chomsky said (Rumbaugh) • Language is in the genetic makeup of human beings • Only humans have and use language

And Then There Were Great Apes • Why Great Apes? • Share 99% of genetic material with YOU… and me. (Jannedy) • Smart, social, easier to live with than an elephant • Gua: 1930 s Experiment • Goal: to see if a chimp can learn language merely by exposure • No formal education • How: Gua was “adopted” by a human family • Successful? NO http: //www. umbc. edu/blogs/changingaging/longevity/

Projects and Experiments Continued… • Viki: 1950 s Experiment • Goal: To prove a chimp could learn language if raised properly • How: Live with humans and undergo training • Successful? NO • Koko: 1970 s Experiment • Goal: To prove non-human primates have human language capability • How: Vocal anatomy of gorillas showed they physically lack capability to speak, so Koko was taught ASL • Successful? YES!

More Recent Projects • Project Nim: Nim Chimpsky • Goal: To see if a chimp could use ASL to communicate and disprove Noam Chomsky’s claim • How: Immerse Nim in an environment where he would use ASL • Successful? NO http: //www. npr. org/templates/story/s tory. php? story. Id=90516132 • Then what’s so special about Nim? • His communicative language skills did not develop entirely, but his social skills did

More Recent Projects Continued… • Language Analogue Project • Goal: To show language ability of chimps specifically with lexigrams • Lexigrams- symbols that correspond with objects or ideas (Jannedy) • Research project used Lana, female chimp, for studies • How: Trained Lana to communicate in Yerkish, a language designed for primates which includes a keyboard with lexigrams (Great ape) • Successful? YES! http: //www. greatapetrust. org/science/history-of-apelanguage/use-of-human-languages-by-captive-great-apes/

So What? • The Future • Researchers have moved on from trying to teach chimps to learn human language to studying how they communicate on their own (Adler) • Issues and Concerns • Is this ethical? • Are they really learning? • What does this mean for humans? <http: //www. npr. org/templates/story/ story. php? story. Id=90516132>. • Further thinking • Why were Viki’s and Nim’s results considered unsuccessful? • Language is more than just a way of transferring information • Was Chomsky right?

Oh the Possibilities… http: //blog. oregonlive. com/pdxgreen/2008/02/vote. html

Works Cited • Great Ape Trust of Iowa. Bonobos May Have Greater Linguistic Skills Than Previously Thought. Science. Daily, 2 Sep. 2008. 6 April 2011. <http: //www. sciencedaily. com/articles/g/great_ape_language. htm>. • Adler, Margot. The Chimp That Learned Sign Language. Day to Day from National Public Radio, 28 May 2008. 7 April 2011. <http: //www. npr. org/templates/story. php? story. Id=90516132>. • Rumbaugh, Duane. Use of Human Language by Captive Great Apes. Great Ape Trust, 2005. 6 April 2011. <http: //www. greatapetrust. org/science/history-of-apelanguage/use-of-human-languages-by-captive-great-apes/>. • Jannedy, Stefanie. Animal Communication. The Linguistics Department of Ohio State University, 1994. 7 April 2011. <http: //www. lcc. gatech. edu/~mcnair/Teaching/3206 S 2004/Animal_Communication. htm>. • Great Ape Language. Science. Daily. 6 April 2011. <http: //www. sciencedaily. com/articles/g/great_ape_language. htm>. • Great ape Language. Wikipedia. 2 March 2011. 6 April 2011. <http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Great_ape_language>.