Essay sample library > Can chimpanzees learn human language?

Can chimpanzees learn human language?

2023-06-13 18:35:16

Have you tried to master a foreign language? If so, do you remember psychoactive exercises in an alien grammar structure that twists your brain into grammar pretzels?

Well, let's say you only speak English and meet only people who know only Mandarin. Words will not convey your message, what will you do? Tap on your best imitation skills and use gestures? Now, you may be able to convey your immediate needs and feelings, but there is no other way to do it.

This brings about a difference between language and communication. Human language is more complicated than physical communication. In addition to having millions of words, you can use tones and tones to add effects. "I am very hungry!" Because of these complexities, people's languages, including the famous linguist Nom Chomsky, have been declared to be unique human characteristics that separate us from other animal kingdoms It was. Of course, birds, bees, wolves, dolphins, etc. can communicate, but can they really get the language?

Please enter the chimpanzee that is the genetic close relative closest to humans. More than 98% of DNA is comparable to ticks and they are genetically closer to us than gorillas [Source: Wade]. Chimpanzees use simple tools to inherit cultural practices to the next generation [Source: Jane Goodall Institute]. For decades psychologists, linguists, and primatologists have studied whether scorpions can cross the last bridge where they learn human languages. What they found caused controversial tug - of - war competition.

To add another wrinkle to the discussion, experts did not have accurate information on the exact information that humans began to talk about. So far, scientists have only found genes encoding our language ability FOXP 2 [Source: Cohen]. Interesting results were obtained when comparing proteins produced by the FOXP2 gene in mice, chimpanzees, and humans. These mice and chimpanzees are much more similar than humans and chimpanzees [Source: Cohen]. However, to determine the effect of protein differences, more research on gene expression is required in the language process.

So, does this mean that chimpanzees can not get the human language? First, let's see how our own brain treat prose, poetry and dialect.

The language spoken includes language, mainly human quality. For example, chimpanzees are closest relatives to humans, but they can not produce words. Chimpanzees are the closest creatures to humans. From a genetic and evolutionary perspective, chimpanzees are not gorillas or other apes, but rather humans are closer than humans. In fact, chimpanzees are not spoken even if they are raised in a human family. In addition, the influence of normal human children on the environment is one of the important tasks to be faced when thinking about seed biology. In repeated experiments, chimpanzees, which were in close contact with humans, have not been able to speak generally or even talk since the 1910s. All ordinary people are born with the ability to learn mother tongue quickly without clear guidance and guidance.

Only humans can understand the language. Can chimpanzees and baboons speak? I think that it is not the only primate that humans can use the basic language. I think that chimpanzees and hearing impaired people can express specific ideas with simple words. I think they have language skills for toddlers, they only work constantly. I do not think that chimpanzees and hearing impaired people can have abstract and complicated languages ​​and ideas. If educational methods are compatible with them and they are willing to learn these materials, chimpanzees and chimpanzees can only learn languages ​​skillfully in everyday lessons and daily practice. Without all these elements, you can not use that language for nonhuman primates.

Chimpanzees are highly intelligent and can solve problems caused by human trainers and experimenters. Many researchers have taught chimpanzees to use language based on sign language or token or graphical symbols. However, the meaning of these language studies is questionable. Critics condemn cricket not to be a real language in the sense of understanding 'text' as an abstract symbol, but they can be combined in a meaningful new way. Other researchers believe that recent language training gained a real understanding of "words" that chimpanzees can apply to new contexts.