PSYC 122 Chapter Notes - Chapter 14: Vocal Tract, Vertebra, Foxp2
Document Summary
Language and the four levels of analysis: our species is the only one in which communication is exceedingly complex. Train chimps(cuz closest ancestor) to speak in order to see if hey have retained some elements of protolinguistic abilities. They cannot speak because vocal tract- cannot produce-but they have done nonverbal language, like sign language or typing on a keyboard. Some believe that the fact that they can do it shows they have evolved abilities that enable them to employ rudimentary elements of human speech or language but could be wrong. If we ascribe by this we can say that ancestors that produced chimps and us- would have similar abilities likely. Babies- just pick up the language without being trained-but chimps have to be trained a lot. Chimps don"t have the vocal apparatus- or grammatical rules: the history of human speech. Foxp2- gene has been linked to language ability.
