Chomsky

[Sydney Lamb]

On Wed, 27 Oct 2010, Keith Johnson wrote:

> Regarding parrots' language:  I don't think that Pepperberg claimed
> that Alex learned a human language, and from what I've seen and read
> of his performance I would have to agree.

Right. She is very careful to avoid making any such claims.

  -Syd


> >
> > On Wed, 27 Oct 2010, jlmendi at unizar.es wrote:
> >
> >> Dear Aya:
> >>
> >> I agree that domestic animals can have a certain degree of
> >> communicative interaction with owners and trainers. And of course
> >> I'm aware that there is clear evidence that many species have
> >> complex and sophisticated systems of thought. But this does not
> >> mean they can acquire and use a human language. For me, as for many
> >> people (regardless of the often sterile debate on innatism) a
> >> language is not just a collection of sound/meaning pairs, but a
> >> creative complex system of knowledge that seems not to be at the
> >> reach of other living beings, for the simple and obvious reason
> >> that they lack a human brain.
> >> Best regards,
> >> José-Luis
> >>
> >>
> >> "A. Katz" <amnfn at well.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Jose-Luis,
> >>> Let me ask you this: on what evidence do you base the assertion that
> >>> most organisms do not acquire human language in linguistic
> >>> immersion?
> >>> (I'm assuming you're not counting bacteria here, but are referring
> >>> to
> >>> mammals and birds.)
> >>> Is it because most other animals can't produce the sounds of human
> >>> languages? Do you recognize that a mute human being can acquire
> >>> human
> >>> language but be unable to speak? Does comprehension at all count for
> >>> you?
> >>> Have you ever had a dog? Have you ever had a dog who understood a
> >>> language that some humans who were present did not understand?
> >>> I'm not talking about responding to rote commands that have been
> >>> trained. I'm talking about responding to nonce utterances. I have
> >>> seen
> >>> dogs understand what I said to them, while the humans who were
> >>> present
> >>> in the room, but were not speakers of the language, did not
> >>> understand.
> >>> Like you, I was specifically taught that parrots only immitate, and
> >>> since I had never had a parrot, I believed that for a very long
> >>> time.
> >>> It's only in the past decade, after I saw the evidence, that I
> >>> changed
> >>> my mind.
> >>> Are you speaking from the same kind of belief? Do you believe this
> >>> because you read it in a book or because your professors taught it
> >>> to
> >>> you? How much experience do you have with non-humans? If the
> >>> answer is
> >>> not much, isn't it about time you got to know some other animals?
> >>> Or if
> >>> that's not possible, because you live in a city under cramped
> >>> conditions, couldn't you at least interview people who do have that
> >>> experience?
> >>> Best,
> >>> --Aya
> >>
> >>
>
> Keith Johnson
> Professor of Linguistics
> University of California
> keithjohnson at berkeley.edu
>
>
>
>
>


Sydney M. Lamb
Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences
Rice University, Houston, TX