Lexical creation by signing apes

[Barbara Lemaster]

Yes, you're right, I wasn't following your query.  That's what happens when
I try to reply to something hastily!  I see from other msgs that the issue
has been resolved.  Thanks for the posting.

Barbara

Celso =?iso-8859-1?Q?=C1lvarez?=
=?iso-8859-1?Q?_C=E1ccamo?=<lxalvarz at udc.es> wrote:
>Barbara, thanks.

>

>You say:

>

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

>>visual.

>

>Perhaps I didn't explain myself clearly. I'm not referring to the iconic

>relation between the sign vehicle /thumb moving across eyebrow/ and the

>referent 'eyebrow', but to the isomorphic relation between the sign

>configuration for 'eyebrow' and the sign configuration for 'browse,

>lettuce'. That is, /thumb moving across eyebrow/ is not iconic of
'lettuce'

>-- it is an arbitrary symbol, mediated by homophony in English, something


>like the rebus principle in writing. Koko seemed to be "writing", as with


>popular English usages of the type "4 U", short for "for you". But /thumb
-

>'eyebrow'/ and /thumb - 'lettuce'/ are not homographous either, as signing


>is not writing. So, they are homo... what?

>

>>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.

>

>Thank you, but there is no need for it -- I'm just curious. Yes, I

>understand that many of the claims about apes' language abilities are
quite

>exaggerated or miss the point about the role of grammar (not just lexicon)


>in language. That was evident in the documentary itself ("Koko is just
like

>us", and expressions of that sort). But what struck me, precisely, is that


>a potentially important fact as this one was not discussed.

>

>Best,

>-celso

>

>

>

>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/

>

>