The Yerkish Language For Non-Human Primates

A b s t r a c t g r e a t a p e s) c o u l d be t-,rougiit t o a c q u i r e l i n g u i s t i c skills. F i r s t a t t e m p t s a t t e a c h i n g a spoken l a n g u a g e t o non-human primates had f a i l e d , a p p 3 r e n t l y b e c a u s e ol tlle a n i m a l s ' i n c a p a c i t y v o c a l l y. t o p r o d u c e tlle phonemes of a n a t u r a l l a n g u a g e. S u b s e q u e n t work (Gardner G C a r d n e r , 1 9 7 1 ; I'remack, 1 9 7 1) d e m o n s t r a t e d t h a t colr.munication c o u l d be a c h i e v e d Ey means b u t s e m a n t i c s and s e n t e n c e s t r u c t u r e a r e somewhat r e s t r i c t e d. Lexigrarns a l v a y s have only one meaning of t h e c o r r e s p o n d i n g E n g l i s h and t h e r u l e s f o r t h e i r c o n c a t e n a t i o n \$ere designed t o r e d u c e a m b i g u i t i e s t o a minimum. s t r u c t u r a l diagrams and d e m o n s t r a t e s t h a t , i n s p i t e of t h e many …