英语语言学Chapter4AnimalsandHumanlanguage.pptVIP

Animals and Human Language Human language: unique form of communication Other creatures cannot develop an understanding of human mode of expression Stimulus-response of animals: Riders say WHOA Say Heel to dogs Circus animals go Up,Down, Roll over, etc Animals and Human Language Difficult to conceive animals “understanding” human language, even less likely to produce human language One species of animals do not produce the signals of another species. Horse will not learn to produce Moo among cows; Puppy and baby growing together Chimpanzees and Language 99% basic genetics in common with human 1930s, 2 scientists(Luella and Withrop Kellogg) raised chimp with their son and could understand 100 words, but could not produce 1940s, (Catherine and Keith Hayes) chimp Viki living like a human child, shaping her mouth, it managed to produce some words: mama,papa, cup Remarkable achievement since other primates do not posess the human vocal tract suitable for producing human speech sounds Washoe Beatrix and Allen Gardener taught chimp Washoe to use ASL Beginning 1966, 3.5 years, she came to use signs for more than 100 words She even combined signs to form ‘sentence’ Even inventions in her sign use Understood more signs than actually produced Sarah Taught to use plastic shapes for comm Systematically trained to associate shapes with objects or actions Remained animal in cage Trained with food rewards to manipulate a set of symbols Symbol is arbitrary Lana Similar training technique with Sarah Language was Yerkish: set of symbols on a large keyboard linked to a computer Both Sarah and Lan demonstrated an ability ot use what look like logographic codes and basic structures in ways which resemble the use of language Sarah and Lana Skepticism regarding these linguistic skills (P33) The strongest arguments aginst accepting the achievements of Washoe, Sarah and Lana put forward by the psychologist Herbert Terrace Nim Chimpsky Nim Chimpsky = Noam Chomsky? Chomsky cla