Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id LAA05619 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 1 Jun 2000 11:38:35 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745890@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Primate Rights Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 11:36:28 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
The way I understood it, and I am way out on a limb in the area of primate
communication (i.e. I'm not basing it on experimental knowledge, just what
I've heard), was that primates had 'words' for things but not grammar, i.e.
sentences which conveyed different meanings depending on word order etc.
etc. Like the other primates Ann mentioned that have specific calls for
things like snakes and eagles etc.
If that's wrong I'm prepared to learn otherwise, because it is an important
issue. I've seen studies (on TV- hey I'm a media scholar, it's my job to
watch TV rather than read science journals! :-)) that showed that apes in
the lab can understand grammar, but how would we show them using it in the
wild anyway, since they don't talk or sign (or do they?).
I put these things up entirely with the purpose of being enlightened.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Lawrence H. de Bivort
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2000 4:17 pm
> To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
> Subject: RE: Primate Rights
>
>
> Vincent noted that "Apes do not spontaneously in the wild develop
> grammatical language the way they do in the lab" -- I'm somewhat familiar
> with some of the chimpanze ASL work, carried out in lab environments, but
> unfamiliar with studies indicating that grammar is absent in the wild. Any
> citations at and?
>
> I wonder why chimpanzes would not have grammar in the wild. Is the
> suggestion that they 'learn' grammatical construction from their human
> contacts? By observation of the linguistic activity of the human's around
> them? If so, this might be even more remarkable than their possession of
> grammatical abilities, whether in the lab or the wild.
>
> - Lawrence
>
>
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This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
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