Make love not war..
Kayak bonobo.
Web address:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/
080828171701.htm
Bonobos May Have Greater Linguistic Skills Than Previously Thought
The bonobo Panbanisha's use of turn-taking to achieve her aim is the basis of a
paper written by Ph.D. candidate Janni Pedersen and published in the Journal of
Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science. (Credit: Great Ape Trust
photo)
ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2008) — What happens when linguistic tools used to
analyze human language are applied to a conversation between a
language-competent bonobo and a human? The findings, published this month in
the Journal of Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, indicate that
bonobos may exhibit larger linguistic competency in ordinary conversation than
in controlled experimental settings.
The peer-reviewed paper was written by Janni Pedersen, an Iowa State University
Ph.D. candidate from Denmark whose interests in the language-competent bonobos
at Great Ape Trust of Iowa led her to the United States, and William M. Fields,
director of bonobo research at Great Ape Trust.
Their findings run counter to the view among some linguists, including the
influential Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus of linguistics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who argue that only humans possess and
use language. In his hierarchy of language, Chomsky believes that language is
part of the genetic makeup of humans and did not descend from a single
primitive language evolved from the lower primate order, and it must include
formal structures such as grammar and syntax.
Fields said the publication opens an important new chapter in a decades-long
debate about the linguistic capabilities of apes. "The resistance to this in
the scientific community is enormous," he said. "For the first time, we have a
student who is using linguistic tools that have normally been applied to humans
now being applied to non-humans. This is a move toward using the kinds of
methodology that are appropriate in ape language, based on Savage-Rumbaugh's
1993 monograph, Language Comprehension in Ape and Child."
For her paper, Pedersen analyzed a videotaped conversation between the bonobo
Panbanisha and Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, now a scientist with special standing
at Great Ape Trust, but a researcher at Georgia State University's Language
Research Center when the video was made about 15 years old. Since 2000,
students working in the bonobo laboratory have systematically reviewed archived
video to track the development of competencies such as language in each of the
bonobos for comparison with their current competencies.
"This is a long-term project, starting from the beginning of where we have
data," Fields said. "All of this is contextualized with our current research
and larger programs, such as forgiveness research. The students are looking at
the earlier data, while investigators are looking at new data."
He expects Pedersen's paper to be the first in a series of many. "This paper
serves as an investigation into the early ontogeny of these kinds of
competencies," he said. "These papers will eventually be assembled in a larger
volume to look at issues in the development of forgiveness and other cultural
dimensions of the apes' lives."
In the video that is the subject of Pedersen's publication, Panbanisha was in
the forest with Savage-Rumbaugh and an assistant, who had a dog in tow that
Panbanisha didn't like.
Though Panbanisha and Savage-Rumbaugh moved from topic to topic in the
conversation, Panbanisha repeatedly used the lexigrams to express her desire to
be carried by the assistant, who was tending to the dog. Savage-Rumbaugh
offered other resolutions, but Panbanisha remained firm. Ultimately, the ape
prevailed and was carried from the forest by the assistant.
After applying conversational analysis tools, Pedersen asserted that language
is more than the simple act of transferring information, but a conversational
interaction between active participants. Language-competent bonobos use
lexigrams, which are made up of arbitrary symbols that represent words, as the
basis for conversations with humans.
Pedersen said linguistic aspects of the conversation included turn taking,
negotiation, pauses and repetition, and went far beyond information sharing
made possible through the use of lexigrams symbols.
"She was using language to get at what she wanted," Pedersen said. "She is
very, very clever and is fully capable of following the conversation the same
way a human does. This tells me that Panbanisha's knowledge of language is far
beyond understanding the words, to understanding how to use them in a
conversation to get what she wants."
"One of the things Janni has affirmed, and affirmed in a way the lay person can
understand, is the aspect of turn-taking. If there is anything universal in
human language, it's turn of talk," Fields said. "The fact that Panbanisha has
done this, and it's accessible even to an untrained reviewer, I think is an
important aspect of her paper. She has looked at the whole social action, and
the meaning. Ideational flow – going back and forth – is obvious.
"Originally, repetition was thought of something that happens normally in human
language," he said. "Traditionally, repetition in ape communicative behaviors
is assumed to be proof that they don't have language. It's a kind of dichotomy
or unfairness."
Fields said Pedersen, who has a master's degree in philosophy from the
University of Aarhus, Denmark, and is working toward a Ph.D. in ecology and
evolutionary biology in ISU's Anthropology Department, "has been able to do
something unique" that Chomsky, long regarded as the father of contemporary
linguistics, was unable to do.
Pedersen expects to complete her dissertation in ape language research, the
second to focus on data collected with the world-famous bonobos at Great Ape
Trust. The first was Pictorial Primates – A Search for Iconic Abilities in
Great Apes, by cognitive scientist Tomas Persson from Sweden's Lund University.
He argued that the bonobos at Great Ape Trust readily grasped the meaning of
abstract symbols, such as those found on the lexigrams board, and, like humans,
are able to interpret.
"The importance of Janni's Ph.D. can't be overstated," Fields said. "Hers will
be the first Ph.D. produced in ape language since the research moved to Iowa."
The ape language research program moved from Georgia to Des Moines in 2005, and
Great Ape Trust is the only place in the world where such research takes place.
"Janni is an important part of the future, and she will help carry ape language
research further," Fields said.
Adapted from materials provided by Great Ape Trust of Iowa.
Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the
following formats:
APA
MLA
Great Ape Trust of Iowa (2008, September 2). Bonobos May Have Greater
Linguistic Skills Than Previously Thought. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 2,
2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/08/080828171701.htm
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Jusfiq Hadjar gelar Sutan Maradjo Lelo
Allah yang disembah orang Islam tipikal dan yang digambarkan oleh al-Mushaf itu
dungu, buas, kejam, keji, ganas, zalim lagi biadab hanyalah Allah fiktif.
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