Language acquisition in a nonhuman species: implications for the innateness debate

This article approaches the linguistic innateness issue from the perspective of a nonhuman species, the bonobo, an ape which is generally taken to be the best living model for early hominids. Recent studies indicate that a bonobo reared with humans comes spontaneously to comprehend spoken words, to produce novel two word combinations, and to respond appropriately to syntactically ordered sentences. The difference between the use of word combinations to say what one word can accomplish and combinations that convey a novel idea not transmittable by a single word is emphasized. It is argued that the use of such novel combinations must have preceded the appearance of syntax in the evolution of language. The use of multiword novel combinations has not received sufficient attention in the literature because of the erroneous assumption that novel meanings could only be achieved through syntactical structure. Consequently the significance of the ape's linguistic competence has been severely undervalued.