READING TWO: Speaking to the Relatives © Warm-up Discuss the question with a partner. How would you set up an experiment to see if chimps or apes could learn human language? Remember, they are not physically able to reproduce all the sounds of any human language. © Reading Strategy P There is often a direct link between the title of a text and the contents of its introductory paragraph. Understanding this link helps the reader focus with more confidence on the rest of the text. ee eee cA CRIS Rae Look at the title of the reading. Then read the first paragraph and the first word of the second paragraph. Discuss the questions with a partner. 1. What does the title imply? Who are the “relatives,” and whose relatives are they? 2. How does the first paragraph clarify the subject of the text? What do linguists sharing Chomsky’ point of view think? 3. The second paragraph begins with “But.” What do you think it will discuss? Now read the whole text to find out if your predictions were correct. Speaking to the Relatives From the Why Files + Where did our capacity for language originate? Many linguists, echoing the influential Noam Chomsky, argue that it's a uniquely human gift. According to this school, chimpanzees and other close relatives could not use language because they lack the human brain structures that create language. But other researchers disagree, pointing out that a few apes can use, at least to ‘some extent, symbolic communications systems — languages — like American Sign Language. E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh,? a Georgia State University biology professor, says the accepted wisdom reflects a long-standing bias and that ‘modern studies are refuting it. (continued on next page) "Noam Chomsky: linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and political activist; has taught at MIT for 50 years and has been described as the father of modern linguistics 2Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh: originally based at Georgia State University’s Language Research. Center in Atlanta, and now serves as executive director and head scientist at Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa Zoology: Animals and Language 1493 Savage-Rumbaugh studies bonobos — a relative of ours that, like chimpanzees, shares 98 to 99 percent of human genes. When you ‘spend all day with bonobos, she says, “the differences don't loom very large. . .. They look like us, care like us, smell ike us, think lke us. ‘They are like us.” Speaking at the recent American Association for the ‘Advancement of Science meeting in Philadelphia, Savage-Rumbaugh ‘observed that since apes don't have ‘a vocal tract, they can't make the ‘sounds of human language. Previous researchers have tried to overcome that liabilty by teaching apes sign language. Savage-Rumbaugh, however, uses a “keyboard”? ‘consisting of 400 symbols, and what she finds is controversial "If you talk to apes and Point to litle symbols, they leam to understand language just as I'm talking to you.” 4 Instead of using behaviorism — rewarding the apes with food each time they se a word correctly — she allows the animals to pick up words in “normal” ‘conversation. This seems to work. ‘Watching Kanzi [an experimental bonobo] in casual ‘conversation,’ one is struck by the intense give-and-take," wrote jour: Stephen Hart, author of The Language of Animals. Furthermore, the researchers found Kanzi’s understanding of new sentences to be about equal to that of a two- and-a-half-year-old child, Hart found, 5 Savage-Rumbaugh suspects that bonobos are using language in the wild, but since they congregate in trees in groups of about 100, “it's almost impossible to study them.” And on the ground, they are silent to avoid predators. Savage- Rumbaugh contends that wild bonobos — only an estimated 4,000 to 40,000 survive in Congo, formerly Zaire — have a second communication system. This one resembles road signs built of smashed plants rather than steel. © The finding grew from the observation that troops of bonobos hang out in various locations during the day. When bonobos go foraging on the ground, the small groups must maintain “radio silence” to evade predators. Savage-Rumbaugh began wondering how one group manages to follow another to the next hangout. 7 In 1995, Savage-Rumbaugh spent two months studying bonobos at a research station operated by Takayoshi Kano, a Japanese primate researcher in the Congo forest. During two days of following troops with local bonobo trackers, she observed that their trails were clearly marked by smashed plants and branches planted at an angle to the direction of travel. 8 Although skeptics could counter that she was just seeing trampled plants, she contends they actually were road signs since they occurred only at trail intersections. “These clues are not left at arbitrary points in the vegetation but rather at locations where trails split and where an individual following might be confused as to the correct direction to take.” While the finding has not been replicated in other primates, Savage-Rumbaugh suspects that it might represent the kind of symbolic communication system humans rely on. keyboard: also referred to as a “Jexigram” in the literature on this topic 150 CHAPTER 6