"Robert Karl Stonjek"  wrote in
message news:bukvpo$166b$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> Monkey Hear, But Monkey Not Comprehend
> Thu Jan 15, 5:08 PM ET  Add Health - HealthDay to My
Yahoo!
>
> By Randy Dotinga
> HealthDay Reporter
>
> THURSDAY, Jan. 15 (HealthDayNews) -- Researchers say
they've come closer
> than ever to figuring out why humans can string sentences
together and our
> hairy cousins can't.
>
> One of the major barriers to a simian Shakespeare appears
to be the
> inability of primates to comprehend anything other than
the simplest rules
> of grammar, according to a new study.
>
> Monkeys who listened to alternating male and female voices
couldn't pick up
> on complex patterns designed to mimic those of human
speech, researchers
> found. This lack of understanding could be a "fundamental
bottleneck on
> animal thought," says study co-author Marc D. Hauser, a
professor of
> psychology at Harvard University.
>
> While monkey grammar skills may seem like a pretty arcane
topic harkening
> back to diagrammed sentences on chalkboards, it's actually
at the center of
> a major mystery: How did human speech evolve? How does the
way humans talk
> to each other differ from the way animals communicate?
>
> "Grammar may be the defining feature of human language,
what makes our
> language different from other forms of animal
communication," says Keith R.
> Kluender, a professor of psychology who studies speech
perception at the
> University of Wisconsin. "It's a pretty big deal."
>
> It's no secret that animals can communicate with each
other in simple
> ways -- think of those midnight neighborhood symphonies of
howling dogs or
> cats in heat. And humans have managed to teach sign
language to apes and
> dolphins.
>
> But Hauser says the top number of words they have learned
is in the
> 300-to-400 range, which doesn't even compare to the
60,000-word vocabulary
> of a typical high school graduate.
>
> Apes "have learned signs that refer to things in their
world, like food and
> actions," Hauser says. "They could label things and could
sign 'apple' or
> 'pond.' But what they couldn't say is, 'My apple is in the
pond' or 'on the
> chair.' "
>
> >From  Science via Yahoo News
> http://tinyurl.com/3eewp
>
> Posted by
> Robert Karl Stonjek.

Hmm...also very interesting. But doesn't the fact that the
differences in vocal apparatuses in, say, man vs. monkey,
limits monkey speech capability, play a significant part in
capacity for both word memory and grammer rules? IOW, if
you're not able to use it, you lose it?

Seems to me, that it the limited vocal capacity in animals
is the main reason their brains never evolved to the level
of
organizational complexity which would make them efficiently
utilize a large number of words and grammer rules.
.....tonyC
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