Language learning in the bonobo: How and why they learn

Abstract

(from the book) (the author) describes her language studies of the Bonobo (Pan paniscus) suggests that because ...no clearly documented anatomical structures present in man's brain are completely absent in the chimpanzee ...that more of the behavioral differences between Pan and Homo may be attributable to learning than previously acknowledged asserts that based upon this premise ...language may have been an "invented' behavior rather than a biological endowment" outlines the logical prerequisites for identifying behavior that implies knowledge of meaning and relates these criteria to studies carried out, by her and her colleagues, on language learning in chimpanzees characterizes the procedures used to rear Bonobo chimpanzees, from birth, in a language environment that parallels the one in which human babies are raised focuses upon the concept of routine" to illustrate how the chimpanzees map meaning onto specialized symbols (lexigrams) and ultimately come to comprehend the spoken utterances of their human caretakers argues that her observations of chimpanzees are not incompatible with the idea that homologuous processes are at work in both apes and children as language is acquired.