We tortured a lot of apes to prove Noam Chomsky right: language was an innate human ability and not something other animals can learn. Even the apes that learned English words or sign never once asked a question.
Almost everything you’ve heard that an Ape “singed” was “interpreted” by a handler or trainer; the actual transcripts are not intelligible. I’m sure some researchers and trainers were acting in good faith, but you can see how much room to fudge there is.
Coco the gorilla was a fraud. (well, her handlers were frauds) for example, her handler often claimed that Coco would use rhymes to indicate what she “really” meant. The problem is that a native sign-language user would have no idea that two English words rhymed. Their are rhymes in sign, where the motions are similar, not the phonetics.
What about the one where the Japanese guy isolated the bird language words for “danger, snake!”, then played it on speakers to wild birds, which caused them to panic and start looking around for the snake.
One of the most convincing experiments showing that animals have language that I’ve seen. The video is on YouTube
The problem is that a native sign-language user would have no idea that two English words rhymed
I do agree it’s a fraud, but I’d also say “native sign language speaker” is a bit of a misnomer. Comparing it to a human we’d be talking about someone with perfect hearing but born mute. IE if they were taught by someone who spoke out loud as they signed, they would understand ryming in ways that someone who was deaf obviously wouldn’t.
We tortured a lot of apes to prove Noam Chomsky right: language was an innate human ability and not something other animals can learn. Even the apes that learned English words or sign never once asked a question.
Almost everything you’ve heard that an Ape “singed” was “interpreted” by a handler or trainer; the actual transcripts are not intelligible. I’m sure some researchers and trainers were acting in good faith, but you can see how much room to fudge there is.
Coco the gorilla was a fraud. (well, her handlers were frauds) for example, her handler often claimed that Coco would use rhymes to indicate what she “really” meant. The problem is that a native sign-language user would have no idea that two English words rhymed. Their are rhymes in sign, where the motions are similar, not the phonetics.
lol no. Not in the absolute sense. Language IS NOT IN ANY WAY, “unique to humans”. Period. Ever.
In fact, there have been a few recent studies that show whale language is as complicated as Chinese.
What about the one where the Japanese guy isolated the bird language words for “danger, snake!”, then played it on speakers to wild birds, which caused them to panic and start looking around for the snake.
One of the most convincing experiments showing that animals have language that I’ve seen. The video is on YouTube
A random arrangement of grains of sand is more complicated than Chinese.
A random arrangement of my shit is more complicated than your brain.
Your opinion means less than nothing.
I do agree it’s a fraud, but I’d also say “native sign language speaker” is a bit of a misnomer. Comparing it to a human we’d be talking about someone with perfect hearing but born mute. IE if they were taught by someone who spoke out loud as they signed, they would understand ryming in ways that someone who was deaf obviously wouldn’t.