Gardner & Gardner (1969)

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How do animals communicate?

What is so special about human language?
Early attempts
Gardner & Gardner
Evaluation
Subsequent studies
Further criticisms
Latest developments

Bird songs
Bee dance
Whale songs
Primate vocal calls

Used in certain contexts: mating, danger of predation etc

Associated with basic brain structures

Chomsky (1959)
Structured and governed by principles
Used in a specific manner
Governed by special language centres

Pinker (1994)
Infinite
Digital
Compositional
Aitchison (1983) identifies 4 characteristics which are unique to
human language
Semanticity
Displacement
Creativity
Structure-dependence

Teaching vocal language to chimpanzees, adopted

and raised in families (cross-fostering)

Kellog & Kellog (1933)

Gua (chimpanzee)- never produced any single word and
seemed to understand only a few

Hayes & Hayes (1951)

Viki (chimpanzee)- mama, papa, cup, up.

Chimpanzees vocal apparatus not suited for speech.

Design
Case study of an enculturated infant female chimp, Washoe
Phase one: extending over 22 months
ASL training (pictorial sign language, with grammar and
syntax)
Training by operant conditioning (positive reinforcement
mainly)

Scoring
When Washoe learned a new sign, it was only
after three different observers noted it as
having occurred in an appropriate context
and spontaneously, the sign was added to a
checklist

A reported frequency of at least 1 appropriate

and spontaneous occurrence each day over a
period of 15 consecutive days was taken as
the criterion of acquisition

Outcome
Within 22 months of training, Washoe learned 30
signs and used them reliably
Come-gimme, more, up, hurry, toothbrush
Hurt, sorry, funny

Rate of vocabulary acquisition was accelerating

Spontaneous transfer (e.g. flower for various
smells)
Used rudimentary combinations of signs,
apparently also novel ones (e.g. gimme tickle,
listen dog)
Trained her adopted son, Loulis, in ASL

Strengths
Decision to teach ASL- breakthrough
Very intensive training schedule, using simple
operant conditioning
Care for the welfare of the animal
Multiple observers, standard criteria for
judging whether Washoe learned a new sign
or not
Long-term study, extended to include
Washoes adopted children

Crucial question: Is it language or not?

Semanticity?
Creativity?
Displacement?
Structure-dependence?

Can you explain the acquisition of ape language by

other means?
Note that:

In humans, babies are not explicitly taught by their parents

to speak, yet within a few years of life they master language
completely
Chimpanzees dont develop language in nature

Premack (1971)
Sarah, communication with small plastic symbols
no claims for proper language

Patterson (1978, 1980)

Koko (gorilla), taught ASL; allegedly quite
sophisticated language
Language is no longer a uniquely human faculty

Terrace (1979)

Nim Chimpsky, taught ASL; rigorous methodology

Initially reported success
Upon evaluation, concluded that what Nim learned
was not language

No grasp of grammar
MLU constant
Imitative in nature
No conversation

A fierce critic of ape-language research

Noam Chomsky
In humans, language cannot possibly be
learned through operant conditioning.
LAD
Steven Pinker
Signs or gestures? Problems with interpretation
Average length of utterrance
Usage

Savage-Rumbaugh
Kanzi, a bonobo chimp
Lexigrams
Learned language via observation, not
deliberate training
Focus on understanding
Rudimentary grammar
Invents some protogrammatical rules
Language ability of a 2.5-year-old child

If chimpanzees cannot learn language

Why is that? What specific prerequisite do

they lack?
Innate language module?
Theory of Mind?

Perhaps training methods were inadequate

Perhaps chimpanzees need a longer time to
acquire language

If chimpanzees can learn language

Then language is not a uniquely human capacity

anymore
The difference between animals and humans
must be redefined
Research on ToM in primates needs to be
reconsidered
The evolution of language must be rewritten

Language evolved long time ago, in an ancestor common to

chimps and humans?

But why wouldnt chimpanzees use language in

the wild?

Key reading
Gardner, R.A. & Gardner, B.T. (1969). Teaching sign language to a
chimpanzee. Science, 165, 664-72.
Additional readings
Gibbons, A. (1991). Deja vu all over again: chimp-language wars. Science,
251, 1561-1562.
Terrace, H.S., Pettito, L.A., Sanders, R.J. & Bever, T.G. (1979). Can an ape
create a sentence? Science, 206, 891-902.
Washoe Obituary in the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/science/01chimp.html?_r=1&em
&ex=1194148800&en=953723ba97c73b53&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin
ASL video dictionary
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
I just couldnt resits A very non-scientific demonstration of the limits of
how much we can attribute to primates:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiiUrAS9BL4