302 CHAPTER 7
solution become obvious, and memory ( to Learning Objective 6.5) is certainly
stored in terms of the semantics of language. Language can definitely influence the per-
ception of others as well—“computer geek” and “software engineer” might be used
to describe the same person, but one phrase is obviously less flattering, and the image
brought to mind is different for the two terms. In the end, trying to determine whether
language influences thoughts or thoughts influence language may be like trying to deter-
mine which came first, the chicken or the egg.Animal Studies in Language
7.14 Summarize the research on the ability of animals to communicate and use
language.I’ve heard that chimpanzees can be taught to use sign language.
Is this for real, or are the chimps just performing tricks like the
animals in the circus or the zoo?There are really two questions about animals and language. The first is “Can animals
communicate?” and the second is “Can animals use language?” The answer to the first
question is a definite “Yes.” Animals communicate in many ways. They use sounds
such as the rattle of a rattlesnake or the warning growl of an angry dog. There are also
physical behaviors, such as the “dance” of honeybees that tells the other bees where
a source of pollen is (Gould & Gould, 1994). But the answer to the second question is
more complicated, because language is defined as the use of symbols, and symbols are
things that stand for something else. Words are symbols, and gestures can be symbols.
But the gestures used by animals are instinctual, meaning they are controlled by the
animal’s genetic makeup. The honeybee doing the “dance” is controlled completely by
instinct, as is the growling dog. In human language, symbols are used quite deliber-
ately and voluntarily, not by instinct, and abstract symbols have no meaning until peo-
ple assign meaning to them. (Although Chomsky’s innate language acquisition device
might lead some to think that language for humans is instinctual, it should be noted
that the infant’s production of speech sounds becomes quite deliberate within a short
period of time.)
Can animals be taught to use symbols that are abstract? There have been attempts
to teach animals (primates and dolphins) how to use sign language (as animals lack the
vocal structure to form spoken words), but many of these attempts were simply not
“good science.” The most successful of these experiments (which is not without its critics
as well) has been with Kanzi, a bonobo chimpanzee trained to press abstract symbols on a
computer keyboard (Savage-Rumbaugh & Lewin, 1994). Kanzi actually was not the orig-
inal subject of the study—his mother, Matata, was the chimp being trained. She did not
learn many of the symbols, but Kanzi watched his mother use the keyboard and appeared
to learn how to use the symbols through that observation. One estimate suggested Kanzi
could understand about 150 spoken English words. Trainers who speak to him are not in
his view, so he is not responding to physical cues or symbols. He has managed to follow
correctly complex instructions up to the level of a 2-year-old child (Savage-Rumbaugh
et al., 1998). A later report suggested Kanzi and his half-sister Pan-Banisha eventually
acquired a working vocabulary of 480 symbols and understood up to 2,000 English words
(Roffman et al., 2012)! However, aside from anecdotal reports based on video recordings,
little to no data have been offered in published studies. One published study with Kanzi
does suggest he makes sounds that seem to have consistent meaning across different sit-
uations (Taglialatela et al., 2003). Nearly 100 videotaped hours of Kanzi engaged in day-
to-day activities were analyzed for these sounds. The researchers were able to identifyDr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh working with
Kanzi, a bonobo chimpanzee.