LING 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Alex (Parrot), Sign Language, Orangutan

• School: UConn
• Department: Linguistics
• Course: LING 1010
• Professor: Hendrikus Van Der Hulst

Document Summary

Ling 1010 lecture 24 - animal communication: alex the parrot. Alex the parrot: what was he able to do? unique and speci c to particular species. Some properties of each communication system may be shared with other communication systems or with other cognitive systems. Properties of human language that may be unique: displacement. Large vocabulary: phonology and syntax (and features such as recursion) Scientists assumed that in order to teach apes language, they would have to teach them speech. They tried to teach vicky the chimpanzee the word. After a long period of time, all that she could manage to say was the sound made by the letter. She could not understand speech: alternatives were used, sign language, keyboards. Differentiate between seven colors and ve shapes. Understand the meanings of: bigger, smaller, same, different, over, under. Alex was able to do much more than simply imitate sounds.