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Related Experiment Videos

Can an ape create a sentence?

H S Terrace, L A Petitto, R J Sanders

    Science (New York, N.Y.)
    |November 23, 1979
    PubMed
    Summary
    This summary is machine-generated.

    Researchers analyzed over 19,000 chimpanzee sign utterances, finding apparent syntactic regularities initially. However, further analysis revealed these patterns were prompted by human interaction, not innate language structure.

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    Area of Science:

    • Primate communication
    • Animal cognition
    • Linguistic development in non-human primates

    Background:

    • Investigating the potential for syntactic and semantic regularities in chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communication.
    • Examining whether observed patterns in sign language usage by chimpanzees reflect genuine linguistic structures or learned responses.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To analyze a large corpus of multisign utterances from an infant chimpanzee (Nim) for evidence of syntactic and semantic regularities.
    • To determine the underlying mechanisms driving observed lexical and positional regularities in chimpanzee sign usage.

    Main Methods:

    • Analysis of over 19,000 multisign utterances produced by an infant chimpanzee.
    • Examination of two-sign combinations for lexical and positional regularities.

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  • Videotape analysis to assess the influence of external prompts and conversational context.

    • Main Results:

    • Initial analysis suggested lexical regularities, such as specific signs appearing in particular positions.
    • Videotape analysis revealed that most utterances were prompted by the teacher's preceding utterance.
    • Chimpanzee utterances showed a higher rate of interruption compared to human child-adult speech patterns.

    Conclusions:

    • Observed regularities in Nim's sign usage were largely attributable to prompted responses rather than innate syntactic structures.
    • Chimpanzee sign discourse patterns, including interruptions, differ significantly from human conversational norms.
    • Findings suggest that apparent linguistic regularities in apes may be influenced by social context and learning rather than inherent grammar.