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8/2/2019 Ling101 Animal Languages
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Animal vs. Human
Language
LING101-S01
August 27, 2009
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Quickwrite #1
When linguists argue that animalsother than humans do not havelanguage, they do NOT mean thatother animals lack the means tocommunicate. They mean that noother animal has a system of
communication like humanlanguage. What are some uniqueproperties of human language you
can think of?
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Communication
Communication involves theprovision of information (via a signal)by a sender to a receiver, and
subsequent use of this informationby the receiver in deciding how orwhether to respond Bradbury &
Vehrencamp (1998)
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Example animalcommunication
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Properties of humanlanguage
Displacement We can talk about things and events in different
time and place
Cultural transmission
The culture in which a person is brought updetermines the language he/she acquires
Duality Human language is organized at two different levels:
one specializing in the form and the other in themeaning
Arbitrariness Relation between the form and the meaning is
arbitrary
Productivity
Humans can create new expressions and novelutterances by combining discrete linguistic units in a
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Properties of humanlanguage
Specialization Language signals do not serve any other type of
purpose such as breathing or feeding
Use of vocal-auditory channel
Language signals are sent using the vocal organsand received by the ears
Non-directionality Language signals can be picked up by anyone within
hearing range
Reciprocity Any sender of a language signal can also be a
receiver
Prevarication We can lie and deceive
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A Challenge
Language is innate and unique to thehuman species - Noam Chomsky
Can animals learn human language,or at least a fragment of it, if theywere raised in an environment likeinfants?
Horses, pigeons, dogs are not goodcandidates
Perhaps apes may be good candidates
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Washoe
Raised in a domesticenvironment
Researchers used ASLwhen Washoe was
around Learned to use signs
for more than 100words Invented a novel sign
for bib Combined signs for
water and bird to referto swan
Combined signs to
express gimme tickle,more fruit, open food
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Nim Chimpsky
Project Nim 44 months in NY from
1973 One week old infant male
chimpanzee
Lived initially in aresearchers home inManhattan, later in auniversity ownedmansion in Bronx
Sole student in a Psychclassroom at Columbia
University, taught bymore than 60 volunteerteachers
Researchers dictated hisutterances andvideotaped his interactionwith the teachers withoutbeing seen
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Kanzi
Learned to matchsymbols withobjects
Spontaneouslybegan to learn thesymbol system byobserving another
bonobo strugglingto learn
Clip 1, Clip 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxmbjLoUnhkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxmbjLoUnhk8/2/2019 Ling101 Animal Languages
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Group discussion
Did the apes learn something similarto human language?
Yes? Why?
No? Why not?
Cannot decide? What more informationdo you need?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channel8/2/2019 Ling101 Animal Languages
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Criticism
Terrace, H. (1979). How Nim ChimpskyPsychology Today,13, 65-76. (Link topdf available on class website)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dhc2zePJFE&feature=channelhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/terrace/w1001/readings/terrace.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/terrace/w1001/readings/terrace.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/terrace/w1001/readings/terrace.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/terrace/w1001/readings/terrace.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/terrace/w1001/readings/terrace.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/terrace/w1001/readings/terrace.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/terrace/w1001/readings/terrace.pdfhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/terrace/w1001/readings/terrace.pdf8/2/2019 Ling101 Animal Languages
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Terrace on previousexperiments
Monkey-at-the-typewriter experiment Some English like word-sequences can be
generated purely by chance
It is possible that the apes have merely
memorized a sequence of signs/symbolssimply to produce for reward (like pressing asequence of buttons of a vending machine)
It is not certain whether the apes understandhow component signs/symbols of a sequenceare related to the reward What if Mary give me in Mary give me
banana meant nothing more than a fewbuttons to press before saying banana?
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Terrace on Project Nim
Multi-sign utterances About 20,000 instances of utterances consisting
of two or more signs in two-year period 1,378 of these unique
Some signs were regularly fixed to a particularposition more in the first position 85% give in the first position 78% Transitive verbs (e.g. hug, tickle, give) combined with
me and Nim in the first position 83%
They did not seem like imitations of what theteacher said
The teacher has little reason to say things like tickleme
Nim used some signs way before the teacher started
using them in conversation
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Terrace on Project Nim
Average length of utterance by Nimin his last two years in NY = 1.1 ~1.6 signs
Similar to children when they begin tocombine words
Although there was steady increasein the vocabulary size, length of hisutterance did not increase
give orange me give eat orange meeat orange give me eat orange give
me you
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Terrace on Project Nim
Nim may have merely imitatedteachers
Only 12% spontaneous, 88% preceded
by a teachers utterance
Less than 10% of his utterance includedexpansions (adding one or more words
to teachers prior utterance) Nim showed high tendency to
interrupt, i.e. did not respect turn-
taking
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