Language capacities of nonhuman animals
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8317382 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Charles T Snowdon (0000-0001-5953-1605, University of Wisconsin–Madison, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1990 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | S11 |
| Pages | 215-243 |
| Publication date | 1990-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/ajpa.1330330510 |
| OpenAlex | W2117651646 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 23 |
| References cited | 111 |
In the last two decades, the study of language parallels in nonhuman animals has generated considerable controversy and excitement. Many have perceived demonstrations of linguistic skills in nonhuman animals as a threat to human uniqueness, whereas others have been uncritical of claims for complex cognitive skills in animals. Two different paradigms for studying linguistic parallels have appeared. One approach teaches great apes linguistic analogues of human language using signs or arbitrary symbol systems; the other seeks to decode communicative complexity in the natural languages of nonhuman animals. This paper reviews the language analogue studies with great apes and cetaceans, examining the utility of the different methods and reviewing the animals' accomplishments. Studies of ontogeny, syntax, referential communication, audience effects, and perception of vocalizations in the natural communication of birds, squirrels, and primates are evaluated. Finally, the brain mechanisms underlying human speech and language are compared with those involved in vocal communication in nonhuman primates. Although chimpanzees and bonobos have accomplished much, they do not threaten human uniqueness with respect to speech and language. Many of the claims for language paralleles in natural communication systems of nonhuman animals are weak, and many can be interpreted without recourse to cognitive constructs. Whereas there exist many similarities between subcortical controls of language and of animal vocalizations, there are no parallels to Broca's and Wernicke's areas in monkeys. However, the critical studies have not been done
Biology · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Human language · Linguistics · Natural (archaeology) · Parallels · Perception · Sign system · Syntax · Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior · Communication · Language and cultural evolution · Neuroscience · Primate Behavior and Ecology · Psychology
Rethinking Orality I
Constraints and preadaptations in the earliest stages of language evolution
Rethinking Orality I
Prelinguistic evolution in early hominins
From monkey-like action recognition to human language
Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in humans
The evolution of speech
Primate social knowledge and the origins of language
Signals
Social transmission, tradition and culture in primates
Wild squirrel monkey ( Saimiri sciureus ) “caregiver” calls
The evolution of combinatoriality and compositionality in hominid tool use
Evolution and the Explanation of Meaning
Myth of the typical primate
Social information transfer in monkeys, apes, and hominids
Language and modern human origins
The origin of speech and its implication for the optimal size of human groups
The living language
Evolutionism, essentialism, and an evolutionary perspective on language
Not from Jove's brow
The rudiments of language
On modelling prelinguistic evolution in early hominins
Syntax and language origins
Categorical responses to natural and synthesized alarm calls in Goeldi's monkeys (Callimico goeldii)
Teaching Sign Language to a Chimpanzee
The Complex Vocal Repertoire of the Adult Cotton-top Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus oedipus)1)
Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) screams
Can an Ape Create a Sentence?
Vervet monkey alarm calls
Syntactic Structures
“Conversations” among pygmy marmosets
Behavioral responses to species‐specific warning calls in infant squirrel monkeys reared in social isolation
On finding that speech is special
The neural circuitry underlying primate calls and human language
Brain lateralization in primates and its evolution in hominids
Intergroup loud calls, range size, and spacing in Callicebus torquatus
The 'chick-a-dee' calls of Parus atricapillus
| Unique citing works | 23 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,66 |
| Citation span | 1991 - 2024 (34) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 21 |