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Topic 4 Animals and Language Learning

This chapter discusses research on teaching language to various animal species like apes, chimpanzees, orangutans and parrots. It explores whether animals can learn and use human language. While animals can communicate, their communication is limited and stimulus-driven, unlike human language which is creative and stimulus-free. The chapter reviews attempts to teach speech and sign language to great apes and finds they can learn some words or signs but without the complexity of human language. Teaching artificial languages to chimpanzees through computers and tokens was also attempted. The chapter concludes that while animals communicate, their communication lacks the creativity and complexity of human language.

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Guinina Nur Kaesarini
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89 views15 pages

Topic 4 Animals and Language Learning

This chapter discusses research on teaching language to various animal species like apes, chimpanzees, orangutans and parrots. It explores whether animals can learn and use human language. While animals can communicate, their communication is limited and stimulus-driven, unlike human language which is creative and stimulus-free. The chapter reviews attempts to teach speech and sign language to great apes and finds they can learn some words or signs but without the complexity of human language. Teaching artificial languages to chimpanzees through computers and tokens was also attempted. The chapter concludes that while animals communicate, their communication lacks the creativity and complexity of human language.

Uploaded by

Guinina Nur Kaesarini
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 5

Animals and Language Learning


Some questions
• Do animals have language and use their
language to communicate with one another as
humans do?
• The chapter discusses some researches on apes,
chimpanzees, orangutans, gorilla, and a parrot.
• Can animals learn humans language?
Human vs Animal Languge

a. Animals can communicate in response to some


particular stimulus while humans language is
stimulus-free.
b. Animals have only a fixed repertoire of
messages, while human language is creative.
1. Teaching Speech to Apes
a. The first scientific attempt: with an Orangutan
b. Gua: The Chimp raised with a human sibling
c. Viki: another chimp raised in a human
household
1.a. The first scientific attempt: with an
Orangutan
• Furness (1915) in USA who attempted to teach
an orangutan to speak.
• It lasted for four month and the end with a
tragedy that the animal died with a high fever
while repeating the two words: ‘papa’ and ‘cup’.
• Psychlogists in 1920s-1940s, the Kelloggs
(1933/1968) and Hayes (1951) did to
chimpanzees.
1.b. Gua: The Chimp raised with a human
sibling
• Winthrop and Luella Kellogg raised a female chimp named
Gua a long with their son, Donald who was three months
older than Gua in their home.
• It lasted for nine months.
• Initially, the two showed the same development on problem-
solving test and tests of mental ability but over time the boy
surpassed the chimp.
• The chimp showed the ability to imitation but that the boy
was more versatile and continuous in his learning.
• Over 16 months of age and over nine months, Gua learned to
respond to approximately 95 spoken words, phrases and
sentences.
1.c. Viki: another chimp raised in a human
household
• Cathy and Keith Hayes (Hayes, 1951) raised a baby
chimpanzee from infancy, named Viki.
• Viki was treated as a full member of thc family; she
has her meals at the table, played games at home,
and went on outings. She was lively and bright.
• After 3 years, Viki had only learned to utter four
words: ‘mama’, ‘papa’, ‘up’ and ‘cup’.
• Chimps have a great ability to mimic and to read
facial expressions and body language, the ability to
understand/comprehend?
2. Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzee,
Gorilla and Orangutan
a. Washoe: The first Signing Chimp
b. Loulis, Son of Washoe; and a Community of
Signing Chimps
c. Nim Chimpsky and the Chimpskyan Revolution
d. Teaching Sign Language to Koko, the Gorilla
e. Teaching Sign Language to Chantek, the
Orangutan
3. Teaching Artificial Languages to
Chimpanzees
a. Lana: The Computer Chimp
b. Sarah: the Magnetic plastic token chimp
c. Kanzi: A pygmy chimp produces synthesized
speech
4. Teaching Language to Dolphins
a. Elvar: The Whistling Dolphin
b. Akeakamai and phonix: Learning artificial
languages through sight and sound
5. Teaching Spoken English to an African
grey parrot
• Pepperberg has worked with a male african grey
parrot, called Alex.
• Alex is now able to understand and answer
questions on the colour, shape, and material of
more than 100 objects. He can correctly name a
host of items such as key, chain, tray, toy truck,
block, cup, and box.
6. Animal Communication in the wild
a. Vervet Monkeys
b. Turn-taking in sound making
c. Bird calls
d. Honey bees: the information dance
e. Reasoning and consciousness in bees and
animals?
Conclusion
• Human language is very creative.
• When we look at animal communication,
however, it is clear that whether it is prompted
by hunger, anger, danger , attraction,
submission, or the need to congregate or
disperse, one signal has a fixed meaning and
combinations of signs to form more complex
structures rarely occur .
• Animal calls or signs or scents have a fixed
meaning, and, whatever means an animal might
use for communicating, it has never been
demonstrated that it involves creative
recombination or the use of complex structures
that are typical of human language .
• In child language acquisition, comprehension is
primary not the production of the language.
Announcement
• Next meeting will be the first review.
• Be prepared for that.
• Please read again what we have discussed from
the first meeting at home.

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