Animal Language

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

2. 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)

3. 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

4. Teaching chimpanzees • Catherine and Keith HAYES (1940s) • 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)

5. 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...)

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

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

8. 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.

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

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

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

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

13. 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

14. Similarexperiments • Clever Hans: German horse • could use his hoof beats to answer arithmetical questions • responded to subtle visual clues

15. Dolphins • Buzz and Doris (1960s) • 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

16. 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

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