Lexical creation by signing apes

[Richard Arnold]

In a message dated 5/15/01 5:40:03 PM Central Daylight Time,
Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM writes:


> Either Koko associated the lettuce and
>      the facial feature with their English names (which she presumably
> learned
>      from the researchers, whether they meant her to or not), or the
> transferred
>      sign was used by a researcher.
>
>

I would agree with Mandel's observations. We need more accurate data as to
how the ape originally acquired the sign. Until then everything else is
speculative. The media  can at times exaggerate things or get their
information wrong. (National Geographic did this once in a article about a
tribe in my home country when I read their article I had a good kick out of
it as I realised that the author was being had (made a fool of) by the people
he interviewed.)

Richard Arnold
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