Linguist Says Apes Can Communicate

JUNE 04, 1998, 19:06 EDT

Linguist Says Apes Can Communicate

By SONJA BARISIC
Associated Press Writer

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — Talbot J. Taylor, like many linguists, initially was skeptical about the notion that apes could learn to use language to communicate with humans.

Taylor considered that the stuff of fiction, such as the Tarzan novels that fascinated him so much as a kid he memorized the "ape language" created by author Edgar Rice Burroughs.

But observing researchers' work with two bonobo apes changed his mind. He concluded that even though the bonobos can't talk because they don't have a vocal tract, they can learn humanlike communication techniques.

Taylor, a professor of English and linguistics at the College of William and Mary, is co-author of "Apes, Language and the Human Mind," a book to be released June 25 by Oxford University Press.

He collaborated with Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a well-known ape researcher at Georgia State University, and Stuart G. Shanker, a philosopher and psychologist at York University in Toronto.

The authors argue that scientists must reevaluate the notion that language is a uniquely human attribute.

That belief has formed the basis of skepticism about ape language research, much of which has been dismissed by linguists as "monkey see, monkey do" — mimicry rather than language comprehension.

This research, though, is different, Taylor said in an interview Thursday. He said he believes the bonobos are "using language productively, creatively in order to communicate."

Taylor and Shanker observed Ms. Savage-Rambaugh's work with two adult bonobos, a rare chimpanzee species.

Ms. Savage-Rumbaugh raised Kanzi and his sister, Panbanisha, at Georgia State's Language Research Center in Atlanta. She taught the animals to communicate using a keyboard of lexigrams, or symbols.

Four years ago, she invited Taylor and Shanker to observe the bonobos. Taylor said he initially expected to write an article attacking her claims.

"I assumed that basically they (the researchers) had been tricked," that the apes simply had memorized sequences on the keyboard, Taylor said.

Kanzi, however, didn't just go through exercises learned by rote, Taylor said. Instead, the ape interacted with Ms. Savage-Rumbaugh.

"He'd come over and ask for something, or he'd state something," Taylor said. "It was very clear that they were communicating ... as a regular part of their interaction. Language was playing a very humanlike role in their interaction."

Kanzi has demonstrated he has the ability to understand spoken English sentences as well as a 2 1/2 -year-old child, Taylor said.

Researchers tested him using 600 unfamiliar sentences. For example, Kanzi was asked: "Can you make the (toy) dog bite the (toy) snake?"

Kanzi immediately placed the dog's mouth on the snake. That showed he knew "dog" was the subject of the verb "bite" and that the direct object was "snake," Taylor said.

As a linguist, Taylor was trained to consider structural tools such as vocabulary and grammar to be the essence of language. He said that initially made it hard for him to recognize the broad communication skills the apes have mastered.

One incident, in particular, changed Taylor's outlook.

Panbanisha grabbed the keyboard one morning and tapped the symbols for "Austin—Sherman—fight."

Austin and Sherman are two other chimpanzees at the center. An assistant told Ms. Savage-Rambaugh that the two chimps had fought the night before.

Taylor said Panbanisha used language to report — tattle-tale, even — something she thought Ms. Savage-Rumbaugh would want to know.

"That grasp of what words are for, what you can do with words ... is where Kanzi and Panbanisha and the other chimps have gone much further than any other nonhuman animal has ever done," Taylor said.

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