Language and Bonabos
Via Robot Wisdom Weblog, a link to an excellent article about the language abilities of bonobo chimps. Here's an excerpt:Two bonobo chimpanzees in Iowa are changing how scientists think about the nature of human language.
Kanzi and Panbanisha understand thousands of words. They use sentences, talk on the phone, and they like to gossip. In short, they use language in many of the same ways humans do.
That's not supposed to be possible.
Here's another excerpt:
Savage-Rumbaugh was determined to prove that Kanzi really did understand sentences. So she asked him to take a series of scientific language tests.
In one of the tests, which was videotaped, Savage-Rumbaugh wears a welder's mask so Kanzi can't see her face, and she makes no gestures. She asks Kanzi to perform dozens of unlikely tasks, like putting pine needles in the refrigerator. He understands nearly every request.
In these tests, Kanzi was doing what linguists said no ape could do. And later, Kanzi's little sister, Panbanisha, would perform even better in similar tests.
It's a fascinating article and a great read, and you can find it here.
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