Keywords
animal language
cross-species comparison
semantic relations
word order
How to Cite
Number of views: 524
Number of downloads: 520
Abstract
Previously published corpora of two-word utterances by three chimpanzees and three human children were compared to determine whether, as has been claimed, apes possess the same basic syntactic and semantic capacities as 2-year old children. Some similarities were observed in the type of semantic relations expressed by the two groups; however, marked contrasts were also uncovered. With respect to the major syntactic mechanism displayed in two-word child language, namely word order, statistically significant differences were found in all three comparisons that were tested. These results indicate that chimpanzees do not exhibit the linguistic capacities of 2-year old children.References
Anderson, S. (2004). A telling difference: Animals can communicate, but evidence that any of them can emulate human language remains elusive. Natural History, 113(9), 38-43.
Baker-Shenk, C. L. (2002). American Sign Language: A teacher’s resource text on grammar and culture. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
Becker, M. (2009). The role of NP animacy and expletives in verb learning. Language Acquisition, 16, 283-296.
Bley-Vroman, R. (2009). The evolving context of the fundamental difference hypothesis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31, 175-198.
Bloom, L. (1970). Language development: Form and function in emerging grammars. Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press.
Bloom, L., Lightbown, P., Hood, L., Bowerman, L., & Maratsos, M. (1975). Structure and variation in child language. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 40(2), 1-97.
Boeckx, C. (2013). Biolinguistics: Forays into human cognitive biology. Journal of Anthropological Sciences, 91, 1-28.e JASs
Boeckx, C., & Longa, V. M. (2011). Lenneberg’s views on language development and evolution and their relevance for modern biolinguistics. Biolinguistics, 5(2), 254-273.
Bowerman, M. (1973). Early syntactic development: A cross-linguistic study with special reference to Finnish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brakke, K. E., & Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (1995). The development of language skills in bonobo and chimpanzee: I. Comprehension. Language and Communication, 15(2), 121-148.
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Cambridge declaration on consciousness. (2012). Retrieved from http://fcmconference.org/img/CambridgeDeclarationOnConsciousness.pdf
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax, Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press.
Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on government and binding: The Pisa lectures. Dordrecht: Foris.
Chomsky, N. (1995). The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press.
Christophe, A., Nespor, M., Guasti, M. T., & Van Ooyen, B. (2003). Prosodic structure and syntactic acquisition: The case of the head-direction parameter. Developmental Science, 6(2), 211-220.
Ellis, N. C. (2002). Frequency effects in language processing: A review with implications for theories of implicit and explicit language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 143-188.
Fiengo, R. (2003). Linguistic intuitions. Philosophical Forum, 34(3/4), 253-260.
Fitch, T. W. (2010). The evolution of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fouts, R. S. (1975). Capacity for language in great apes. In R. H. Tuttle (Ed.), Socioecology and psychology of primates (pp. 371-390). The Hague: Mouton.
Friedman, L. (1975). Space and time reference in American Sign Language. Language 51, 940-961.
Gardner, R. A., & Gardner, B. T. (1969). Teaching sign language to a chimpanzee. Science, 165(3894), 664-672.
Gibson, E., & Wexler, K. (1994). Triggers. Linguistic Inquiry, 25(3), 407-454.
Gillespie-Lynch, K., Greenfield, P. M., Lyn, H., & Savage-Rumbaugh, S. (2011). The role of dialogue in the ontogeny and phylogeny of early symbol combinations: A cross-species comparison of bonobo, chimpanzee, and human learners. First Language, 31(4), 442-460.
Greenfield, P. M., & Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (1990). Grammatical combination in Pan paniscus: Processes of learning and invention in the evolution and development of language. In S. T. Parker & K. R. Gibson (Eds.), “Language” and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Comparative developmental perspectives (pp. 540-578). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Greenfield, P. M., & Savage-Rumbaugh, S. E. (1991). Imitation, grammatical development, and the invention of protogrammar by an ape. In N. Krasnegor, D. Rumbaugh, R. Schiefelbusch, & M. Studdert-Kennedy (Eds.), Biological and behavioral determinants of language development (pp.235-258). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W. T. (2002). The Language Faculty: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science, 298, 1569-1579.
Hauser, M. D., Yang, C., Berwick, R. C., Tattersall, I., Ryan, M. J., Watumull, J., Chomsky, N., & Lewontin, R. C. (2014). The mystery of language evolution. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1-12.
Larson, R. K. (1988). On the double object construction. Linguistic Inquiry, 19(3), 335-391.
Lenneberg, E. H. (1967). The biological foundations of language. New York: Wiley.
Lenneberg, E. H. (1969). On explaining language. Science, 164(3880), 635-643.
Lyn, H., Greenfield, P. M., & Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (2011). Semiotic combinations in Pan: A comparison of communication in a chimpanzee and two bonobos. First Language, 31(3), 300-325.
Lyn, H., Greenfield, P. M., Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S., Gillespie-Lynch, K., & Hopkins, W. (2011). Nonhuman primates do declare! A comparison of declarative symbol and gesture use in two children, two bonobos, and a chimpanzee. Language & Communication, 31(1), 63-74.
Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics: Volume 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES Project: Tools for analyzing talk (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Mann, H. B., & Whitney, D. R. (1947). On a test of whether one of two random variables is stochastically larger than the other. Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 18(1), 50-60.
Narita, H., & Fujita, K. (2010). A naturalist reconstruction of minimalist and evolutionary biolinguistics. Biolinguistics, 4(4), 356-376.
Newport, E. (2002). Critical periods in language development. In L. Nadel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of cognitive science (pp. 737-740). London: Macmillan/Nature Publishing Group.
O’Grady, W., Archibald, J., Aronoff, M., & Rees-Miller, J.(2009). Contemporary linguistics: An introduction (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Pacesova, J. (1981). On the question of the child’s linguistic competence. Sbornik Praci Filosoficke Fakulty Brnenske University, A: Rada Jazykovedna, 29, 21-29.
Pederson, J., & Fields, W. M. (2009). Aspects of repetition in bonobo-human conversation: Creating cohesion in a conversation between species. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 43, 22-41.
Pepperburg, I. (2014). Interspecies communication with Grey parrots: A tool for examining cognitive processing. In G. Witzany (Ed.), Biocommunication of animals (pp. 213-232). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
Popham, W. J., & Sirotnik, K. A. (1973). Educational statistics: Use and interpretation (2nd ed.). New York: Harper and Row.
Premack, A. J., & Premack, D. (1972). Teaching language to an ape. Scientific American, 227(4), 92-99.
Rivas, E. (2005). Recent use of signs by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in interactions with humans. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 119(4), 404-417.
Roeper, T. (2009). The prism of grammar: How child language illuminates humanism. Cambridge, MA: The M.I.T. Press.
Savage-Rumbaugh, S., McDonald, K., Sevcik, R. A., Hopkins, W. D., & Rubert, E. (1986). Spontaneous symbol acquisition and communicative use by pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus). Journal of Experimental Psychology, 115(3), 211-235.
Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S., Murphy, J., Sevcik, R., Brakke, K., Williams, S., & Rumbaugh, D. (1993). Language comprehension in ape and child. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58(3-4).
Segerdahl, P., Fields, W., & Savage-Rumbaugh, S. (2005). Kanzi’s primal language: The cultural initiation of primates into language. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Terrace, H. S., Petitto, L. A., Sanders, R. J., & Bever, T. G. (1979). Can an ape create a sentence? Science, 206(4421), 891-902.
Tomasello, M. (1992). First verbs: A case study of early grammatical development. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wexler, K. (1998). Very early parameter setting and the unique checking constraint: A new explanation of the optional infinitive stage. Lingua, 106, 23-79.
Yang, C., & Roeper, T. (n.d.). Minimalism and language acquisition. Unpublished manuscript, University of Pennsylvania & University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Retrieved from http://people.umass.edu/roeper/online_papers/Minimalism%20%20Yang-Roepe%20May%202010.pdf
License
1.1 The Author hereby warrants that he/she is the owner of all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Work and that, within the scope of the present Agreement, the paper does not infringe the legal rights of another person. The owner of the copyright work also warrants that he/she is the sole and original creator thereof and that is not bound by any legal constraints in regard to the use or sale of the work.
1.2. The Publisher warrants that is the owner of the PRESSto platform for open access journals, hereinafter referred to as the PRESSto Platform.
2. The Author grants the Publisher non-exclusive and free of charge license to unlimited use worldwide over an unspecified period of time in the following areas of exploitation:
2.1. production of multiple copies of the Work produced according to the specific application of a given technology, including printing, reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means (reprography) and digital technology;
2.2. marketing authorisation, loan or lease of the original or copies thereof;
2.3. public performance, public performance in the broadcast, video screening, media enhancements as well as broadcasting and rebroadcasting, made available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them;
2.4. inclusion of the Work into a collective work (i.e. with a number of contributions);
2.5. inclusion of the Work in the electronic version to be offered on an electronic platform, or any other conceivable introduction of the Work in its electronic version to the Internet;
2.6. dissemination of electronic versions of the Work in its electronic version online, in a collective work or independently;
2.7. making the Work in the electronic version available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, in particular by making it accessible via the Internet, Intranet, Extranet;
2.8. making the Work available according to appropriate license pattern Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) as well as another language version of this license or any later version published by Creative Commons.
3. The Author grants the Publisher permission to reproduce a single copy (print or download) and royalty-free use and disposal of rights to compilations of the Work and these compilations.
4. The Author grants the Publisher permission to send metadata files related to the Work, including to commercial and non-commercial journal-indexing databases.
5. The Author represents that, on the basis of the license granted in the present Agreement, the Publisher is entitled and obliged to:
5.1. allow third parties to obtain further licenses (sublicenses) to the Work and to other materials, including derivatives thereof or compilations made, based on or including the Work, whereas the provisions of such sub-licenses will be the same as with the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons sub-license or another language version of this license, or any later version of this license published by Creative Commons;
5.2. make the Work available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, without any technological constraints;
5.3. appropriately inform members of the public to whom the Work is to be made available about sublicenses in such a way as to ensure that all parties are properly informed (appropriate informing messages).
6. Because of the royalty-free provision of services of the Author (resulting from the scope of obligations stipulated in the present Agreement), the Author shall not be entitled to any author’s fee due and payable on the part of the Publisher (no fee or royalty is payable by the Publisher to the Author).
7.1. In the case of third party claims or actions for indemnity against the Publisher owing to any infractions related to any form of infringement of intellectual property rights protection, including copyright infringements, the Author is obliged to take all possible measures necessary to protect against these claims and, when as a result of legal action, the Publisher, or any third party licensed by the Publisher to use the Work, will have to abandon using the Work in its entirety or in part or, following a court ruling in a legal challenge, to pay damages to a third party, whatever the legal basis
7.2. The Author will immediately inform the Publisher about any damage claims related to intellectual property infringements, including the author’s proprietary rights pertaining to a copyrighted work, filed against the Author. of liability, the Author is obliged to redress the damage resulting from claims made by third party, including costs and expenditures incurred in the process.
7.3. To all matters not settled herein provisions of the Polish Civil Code and the Polish Copyright and Related Rights Act shall apply.