Lexical creation by signing apes

[Barbara Lemaster]

Hi there,

Homophony in signing would be iconization - recreating something that's
visual.

There have been good critiques of the ape language research, including
claims about Koko's signing abilities.	I don't have one of those
references handy (as I am not in the office), but remember one by Mark
Sidenberg (or is it Seidenberg? - he's at USC now) and Laura Pettito (at
McGill).  I can get that reference for you if you want.

Barbara LeMaster


Celso =?iso-8859-1?Q?=C1lvarez?=
=?iso-8859-1?Q?_C=E1ccamo?=<lxalvarz at udc.es> wrote:
>(Please excuse the cross-posting)

>

>Hello,

>

>I've just watched a documentary on Koko, the signing gorilla. In it, it is


>reported that Koko once transferred the sign for "eyebrow" for a type of

>lettuce called "browse" (spelling?) for which researchers didn't have yet
a

>specific sign. Koko would move her thumb(s) across her eyebrow(s) to

>request browse -- not any lettuce. So, Koko seemed to be able to dettach

>the iconic component of the ASL sign and thus to create a pure symbol.

>

>If this is so (that is, if this was an innotative creation by Koko, not

>prompted by the researchers' own use of the sign, my questions are,

>

>(1) How would we better characterize this procedure? Lexical creation
based

>on partial homophony? But, since the sign is not vocal-aural, what is the


>term commonly used for homophony for visual signs?

>

>(2) Has this phenomenon been observed in other signing apes? I am not

>referring, obviously, to lexical creation by composition (e.g. Koko's
'hole

>+ hat' for 'mask', or 'ring + wrist' for 'bracelet'), or to the use of

>preestablished symbols by apes, but to a type of creative symbolization

>similar (I would say) to the transfer of ideographs for indicating
phonetic

>component of other signs, or to the use of originally ideographic symbols


>in Japanese kanji.

>

>(3) What can be said about the implications of this procedure in signing

>apes with regards to their linguistic capabilities? Does this imply

>linguistic analysis and reflexivity beyond what is commonly assumed?

>

>Thank you,

>

>Celso Álvarez Cáccamo		    Tel. +34 981 167000 ext. 1888

>Linguística Geral, Faculdade de Filologia     FAX +34 981 167151

>Universidade da Corunha			  lxalvarz at udc.es

>15071 A Corunha, Galiza (Espanha)  http://www.udc.es/dep/lx/cac/

>

>