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

["Karey L. Perkins" <karey AT charter.net>]

The thing to think about is -- Kanzi IS communicating, but is Kanzi dealing in sign or symbol?  Is he developing a mythology and a  "world"?  I think Percy would say no...pointing to grape "icons" and going outside the cage are still interactions in an "environment" (cf. Percy's definition of "world" and "environment"...)

 

KP

 

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Parlin, Steven

To: 'percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org'

Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 11:39 AM

Subject: [percy-l] Lab chimp speaks his own language

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

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