Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

["Parlin, Steven" <PARLINS AT culver.org>]

Here's an interesting wrinkle in the Kanzie debate. I have't formed an
opinion yet, but thought I'd throw it to the list to chew on. 

Steve



Lab chimp speaks his own language
10:15 02 January 03
Exclusive from New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993218
A bonobo has surprised his trainers by appearing to make up his own 
"words". It is the first report of an ape making sounds that seem to hold 
their meaning across different situations, and the latest challenge to the 
orthodox view that animals do not have language.Kanzi is an adult bonobo 
kept at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He has grown up in captivity 
among humans, and is adept at communicating with symbols. He also 
understands some spoken English, and can respond to phrases such as "go out 
of the cage" and "do you want a banana?"Jared Taglialatela and Sue 
Savage-Rumbaugh, who work with Kanzi, noticed that he was making gentle 
noises during his interactions with them. "We wanted to know if there was 
any rhyme or reason to when they were produced," says Taglialatela.So his 
team studied 100 hours of videotape showing Kanzi's day-to-day interactions 
and analysed the sounds he made at various times. They picked situations in 
which the bonobo's actions were unambiguous: for example, while he was 
eating a banana, pointing to the symbol for "grapes", or responding to a 
request to go outside by leaving the cage.They identified four sounds that 
Kanzi made in different contexts - banana, grapes, juice and yes. In each 
of these contexts, Kanzi made the same sound. "We haven't taught him this," 
says Taglialatela. "He's doing it on his own."

References
31. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992678
32. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992662
33. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991430
34. http://archive.newscientist.com/
35. http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwlrc/biographies/kanzi.html
36. http://www.biology.gsu.edu/depart/faculty/srumbaugh.htm
37. http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/language.htm