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The Origins of LanguageJordan Zlatev

Lecture 7Studies of “Animal language”

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Discussion

Based on evidence and arguments given in the previous lectures “What is language?” “Systems of animal communication” and the course literature, please discuss

in groups:1. Is the distinction between animal

communication and (human) language mostly quantitative or qualitative? (Why?)

2. What are the major differences?

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Characteristic features of language(Zlatev, Persson and Gärdenfors 2005)

Feature Animal communication

Language

(1) Degree of learning

Mostly genetically determined

Mostly learned from experience

(2) Conscious control

Minimal High

(3) Contextuality Tied to a particular context

Flexible, relatively independent from specific context

(4) Interpretation Relatively fixed response

Flexible, “negotiable”

(5) Communicative relations

Mostly dyadic:Subject-Recipient

Mostly triadic:Speaker-Addressee-Referent

(6) Systematicity None, or very limited High

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Implications

“No animal in the wild has anything approaching the socially transmitted, voluntary controlled, contextually flexible, triadic semiotic system that is language” (Zlatev, Persson, Gärdenfors 2005: 3)

What about: in a human home? in the lab? in a hybrid ”Pan/Homo culture”?

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In a human home: chimpsGua (Kellogg 1931) – vocal language,

comprehension, but not production; sensorimotor skills surpassing Donald

Viki (Hayes 1951) – mama, papa, up, cup

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”Near the home”: chimps Washoe (Gardner & Gardner 1966)

“When the Gardners realized that Washoe was not going to acquire language in a spontaneous fashion, they introduced sign training. This consisted of showing Washoe an object, demonstrating the sign, then taking Washoe’s hands and molding them into the proper hand configuration for the sign. Slowly, the molding was less emphasized until Washoe produced the sign on her own.” (http://www.greatapetrust.org)

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Both home and lab: chimpsNim Chimpsky (Terrace 1979): ASL

training, initial enthusiasm, turned into disillusionment

Terrace: one of the most bitter critiques of ”ape language” studies: ”a Clever Hans effect”?

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In the lab: chimps

LANA project (1971-1976):

“…the lexigram keyboard, developed by Duane Rumbaugh, which has served as the primary communicative interface for ape language research at Decatur, Georgia, for the last several decades. This keyboard is composed of three panels with approximately 384 noniconic arbitrary symbols. When the apes depress a key, the word represented there is spoken by a digital voice and the lexigram is displayed on a video screen”See video

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In the lab: chimps Sherman and Austin (Savage-

Rumbough 1975-1980)

Focus on chimp-chimp communication, ”negotiation” of meaning: ”Pointing back and forth between the token and the item, they establish jointly the correspondence between referent and symbol...” (: 131)

No comprehension of spoken langauge

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”ape/human culture”: bonobos Kanzi (Savage-Rumbough 1980-

1993): Spontaneous early acquisition Informal social environment Controlled comprehension

(Greenfield and Savage-Rumbough 1990)

CHASE (lexigram) YOU (point at person)

”ape/human culture”: bonobos

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”ape/human culture”: chimps Panpanzee and Panbanisha (Savage-

Rumbough 1986-1990): Similar comprehension of English No essential differences b/n

Pan paniscus and Pan troglodytes

The key role of ”enculturation”:”a shared way of living containing characteristic

activites, tools, environments, communication means, social relations, personalities, games, gestures, and so on” (Segerdahl et al. 2005: 8)

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Other apes: less stringent control Koko (Patterson 1981): gorilla, taught a simplified form of

American Sign Language

Chantek (Miles 1990): orangutan, “(Chantek) can talk about places he doesn’t see. He can talk about things that aren’t present. I can ask him to sign better and he will. ”

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Summary (Zlatev 2008a: 232)

”The ape language literature contains rather convincing evidence that apes can:• Comprehend the referential (representational) function

of spoken words, ASL signs, visual lexigrams, and the combinations of these;

• Use the sign-tokens in the absence of their referents, i.e. ”displancement” (Hockett 1960);

• Acquire a considerable vocabulary of words/signs; according to some measurements extending 600 signs, but even according to the most conservative criteria no less that 140 signs;

• Understand novel combinations of spoken or signed words;

• Produce novel combinations of signs”

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Other species Alex (Pepperberg 2001): grey parrot, over

100 English words, including superordinate terms such as color, shape, how many...

Betsy (Kaminski 2001): border collie, over 300 words, spoken English comprehension

Phoenix and Akeakamai (Herman 1984): bottlenose dolphins, comprehesion of simple grammar: GOAL THEME ACTION

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Summary

All great apes ”have the intelligence for a rudimentary, referential, generalizable, imitative, displacebale symbol system” (Miles 1999: 204)

Dogs, Dophins, Parrots?

Is this language, or at least some substantial part of it? Implications?