All Topics  
Animal language

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Animal language
 
 
  Topics Animal language Topic Home

Animal language is the modeling of human language in non human animal systems. While the term is widely used, most researchers agree that animal languages are not as complex or expressive as human language
Language

A language is a form of symbol communication in which elements are combined to represents something other than themselves. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon....
.

Some researchers including the linguist Charles Hocket:1960 who proposed a list of design features of Human Language ),argue that there are significant differences separating human language from animal
Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the Kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life....
 communication even at its most complex, and that the underlying principles are not related. (Hocket , Charles F.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Animal language'
Start a new discussion about 'Animal language'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Animal language is the modeling of human language in non human animal systems. While the term is widely used, most researchers agree that animal languages are not as complex or expressive as human language
Language

A language is a form of symbol communication in which elements are combined to represents something other than themselves. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon....
.

Some researchers including the linguist Charles Hocket:1960 who proposed a list of design features of Human Language ),argue that there are significant differences separating human language from animal
Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the Kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life....
 communication even at its most complex, and that the underlying principles are not related. (Hocket , Charles F. 1960. Logical considerations in the study of animal communication.Animals sounds and animal communication, ed. W.E. Lanyon and W.N. Tavolga, pp.392-430

Others argue that an evolutionary continuum exists between the communication methods these animals use and human language. Examining this continuum could help explain how humanity evolved its incredibly sophisticated proficiency for language.

The following properties of human language have been argued to separate it from animal communication:

  • Arbitrariness: There is no rational relationship between a sound or sign and its meaning. (There is nothing intrinsically "housy" about the word "house".)
  • Cultural transmission: Language is passed from one language user to the next, consciously or unconsciously.
  • Discreteness: Language is composed of discrete units that are used in combination to create meaning.
  • Displacement: Languages can be used to communicate ideas about things that are not in the immediate vicinity either spatially or temporally.
  • Duality: Language works on two levels at once, a surface level and a semantic (meaningful) level.
  • Metalinguistics: Ability to discuss language itself.
  • Productivity: A finite number of units can be used to create an infinite number of utterances.


Research with apes
Great Ape language

Research into non-human great ape language has involved teaching gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans to communicate with human beings and with each other using sign language, physical tokens, and lexigrams; see Yerkish....
, like that of Francine Patterson
Francine Patterson

Dr. Francine "Penny" Patterson is an American researcher who claims to have taught a modified form of American Sign Language which she calls "Gorilla Sign Language" or, GSL to a gorilla named Koko ....
 with Koko
Koko (gorilla)

Koko is a lowland gorilla who, according to Francine Patterson, is able to understand more than 1,000 signs based on American Sign Language, and understand approximately 2,000 words of spoken English....
 or Herbert Terrace with Nim Chimpsky
Nim Chimpsky

Nim Chimpsky was a chimpanzee who was the subject of an extended study of animal language acquisition at Columbia University, led by Herbert S....
, suggested that apes are capable of using language that meets some of these requirements. However, no experiment has shown a non-human being to be proficient in all of these areas.

In the wild chimpanzee
Chimpanzee

Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially known as a chimp, is the common name for the two Extant taxon species of ape in the genus Pan where the Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
s have been seen "talking" to each other, when warning about approaching danger. For example, if one chimpanzee sees a snake, he makes a low, rumbling noise, signalling for all the other chimps to climb into nearby trees. In this case, the chimpanzees' communication is entirely contained to an observable event, demonstrating a lack of displacement.

Arbitrariness has been noted in meerkat
Meerkat

The meerkat or suricate Suricata suricatta is a small mammal and a member of the mongoose family. It inhabits all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and South Africa....
 calls; bee dance
Bee learning and communication

Honey bees learn and communicate in order to find food sources and for other means....
s show elements of spatial displacement; and cultural transmission has occurred with the offspring of many of the great apes who have been taught sign language
Sign language

A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to express fluidly a speaker's thoughts....
s, the celebrated bonobo
Bonobo

The Bonobo , which, until recently, usually was called the Pygmy Chimpanzee and less often, the Dwarf or Gracile Chimpanzee, is a great ape and one of the two species making up the genus, chimpanzee....
s Kanzi
Kanzi

Kanzi , is a male Bonobo who has been featured in several studies on great ape language. According to Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a primatologist who has studied the bonobo throughout his life, Kanzi has exhibited advanced linguistic aptitude....
 and Panbanisha being examples.

However, these single features alone do not qualify such instances of communication as being true language.

Non-Primates: Studied examples

The most studied examples of animal languages are:
  • Bee dance
    Bee learning and communication

    Honey bees learn and communicate in order to find food sources and for other means....
     - used to communicate direction and distance of food source in many species of bees.
  • Bird song
    Bird song

    Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear....
    s - songbirds can be very articulate. African Grey Parrot
    African Grey Parrot

    The African Grey Parrot is a medium-sized parrot of the genus Psittacus, endemic to primary and secondary rainforest of West and Central Africa, and is one of the most intelligent birds....
    s are famous for their ability to mimic human language, and at least one specimen, Alex
    Alex (parrot)

    Alex was an African Grey Parrot and the subject of a thirty-year experiment by animal psychology Irene Pepperberg, initially at the University of Arizona and later at Harvard and Brandeis University....
    , appeared able to answer a number of simple questions about objects he is presented with. Parrots, hummingbirds and songbirds- display vocal learning patterns.
  • Whale song
    Whale song

    Whale song is the sound made by whales to animal communication.The word "song" is used in particular to describe the pattern of regular and predictable sounds made by some species of whales, notably the Humpback Whale....
    s - Two groups of whales, the Humpback Whale
    Humpback Whale

    The humpback whale is a Baleen whale whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from 12–16 metres and weigh approximately 36,000 kilograms ....
     and the subspecies of Blue Whale
    Blue Whale

    The Blue Whale is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales . At up to 32.9 metres in length and 172 metric tonnes or more in weight, it is the largest whale and the largest living animal and is believed to be the largest organism ever to have existed....
     found in the Indian Ocean
    Indian Ocean

    The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean ....
    , are known to produce the repetitious sounds at varying frequencies known as whale song. Male Humpback Whales perform these vocalizations only during the mating season, and so it is surmised the purpose of songs is to aid sexual selection. Humpbacks also make a sound called the feeding call. This is a long sound (5 to 10 s duration) of near constant frequency. Humpbacks generally feed cooperatively by gathering in groups, swimming underneath shoals of fish and all lunging up vertically through the fish and out of the water together. Prior to these lunges, whales make their feeding call. The exact purpose of the call is not known, but research suggests that fish know what it means. When the sound was played back to them, a group of herring responded to the sound by moving away from the call, even though no whale was present.
  • Prairie dog language: Dr. Slobodchikoff studied prairie dog communication and made the following discoveries. His current findings are that prairie dogs have:
    • different alarm calls for different species of predators;
    • different escape behaviors for different species of predators;
    • transmission of semantic information, in that playbacks of alarm calls in the absence of predators lead to escape behaviors that are appropriate to the kind of predator who elicited the alarm calls;
    • alarm calls containing descriptive information about the general size, color, and speed of travel of the predator.
  • Caribbean Reef Squid
    Caribbean Reef Squid

    The Caribbean Reef Squid , also known as just the Reef Squid, is a small torpedo-shaped squid with fins that extend nearly the entire length of the body and undulate rapidly as it swims....
     have been shown to communicate using a variety of color, shape, and texture changes. Squid are capable of rapid changes in skin color and pattern through nervous control of chromatophore
    Chromatophore

    Chromatophores are Biological pigment-containing and light-reflecting cell found in amphibians, fish, reptiles, crustaceans, and cephalopods. They are largely responsible for generating skin and eye color in cold-blooded animals and are generated in the neural crest during embryonic development....
    s. In addition to camoflauge and appearing larger in the face of a threat, squids use color, patterns, and flashing to communicate with one another in various courtship rituals. Caribbean Reef Squid can send one message via color patterns to a squid on their right, while they send another message to a squid on their left.

Comparison of the term with "animal communication"

It is worth distinguishing "animal language" from "animal communication", no matter how complex that latter may be. In general the term "animal language" is reserved for the modeling of human language in animal systems, although there is some comparative interchange in certain cases (e.g. Cheney & Seyfarth's vervet monkey
Vervet Monkey

The Vervet Monkey, sometimes simply known as the Vervet, is the common name of the species Chlorocebus pygerythrus, an Old World monkey in the family Cercopithecidae....
 call studies). Thus "animal language" typically does not include bee dancing, bird song, whale song, dolphin signature whistles, prairie dogs, nor the communicative systems found in most social mammals. Also the features of language as listed above are a dated formulation by Hockett in 1960, one of the first attempts ever to break down features of human language for the purpose of being able to apply Darwinian gradualism, and although an influence on early animal language efforts (see below), is today not considered the key architecture at the core of "animal language" research.

Also, Animal Language results are controversial for several reasons. (For a related controversy, see also Clever Hans
Clever Hans

Clever Hans was a horse that was claimed to have been able to perform arithmetic and other intellectual tasks.After formal investigation in 1907, psychologist Oskar Pfungst demonstrated that the horse was not actually performing these mental tasks, but was watching the reaction of his human observers....
.) In the 1970s John Lilly
John C. Lilly

John Cunningham Lilly was an American physician, psychoanalyst, philosopher and writer.He was a pioneer researcher into the nature of consciousness using as his principal tools the isolation tank, Cetacean intelligence, and psychedelic drugs, sometimes in combination....
 was attempting to "break the code" to speak full-out with wild populations of dolphins so we could speak to them, and share our cultures, histories, and more. This effort failed. The very early chimpanzee
Chimpanzee

Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially known as a chimp, is the common name for the two Extant taxon species of ape in the genus Pan where the Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
 work was with chimpanzee infants raised as if they were human, a test of the nature vs. nurture hypothesis. Of course, they had a different laryngeal structure, as well as no voluntary control of their breathing, so this didn't work well, leading subsequent researchers to move toward a gestural (sign language) modality, as well as "keyboard" devices laden with buttons adorned with symbols (known as lexigram
Lexigram

A lexigram is a symbol that represents a word but is not necessarily indicative of the object referenced by the word. Lexigrams were notably used by the Georgia State University Language Research Center to communicate with bonobos and chimpanzees....
s) that the animals could push to produce artificial language, or observe humans pushing to comprehend it. These later keyboard and gestural chimpanzee researchers are perhaps the best known in animal language, and their animals are also known on a first-name basis: Sarah, Lana, Kanzi, Koko, Sherman, Austin, Chantek.

Perhaps the best known critic of "Animal Language" is Herbert Terrace. Terrace's 1979 criticism using his own research with the chimpanzee Nim Chimpsky
Nim Chimpsky

Nim Chimpsky was a chimpanzee who was the subject of an extended study of animal language acquisition at Columbia University, led by Herbert S....
 was scathing and basically spelled the end of animal language research in that era, most of which emphasized the production of language by animals. In short, he accused researchers of over-interpreting their results, especially as it is rarely parsimonious
Parsimony

Parsimony is a 'less is better' concept of frugality, economy or caution in arriving at a hypothesis or course of action. The word derives from Middle English parcimony, from Latin parsimonia, from parsus, past participle of parcere: to spare....
 to ascribe true intentional "language production" when other simpler explanations for the behaviors (gestural hand signs) could be put forth. Also, his animals failed to show generalization of the concept of reference between the modalities of comprehension and production; this generalization is one of many fundamental ones that are trivial for human language use. The simpler explanation according to Terrace was that the animals had learned a sophisticated series of context-based behavioral strategies to obtain either primary (food) or social reinforcement
Reinforcement

In operant conditioning, reinforcement occurs when an event following a response causes an increase in the probability of that response occurring in the future....
, behaviors that could be over-interpreted as language use.

In 1985 during this anti-Animal Language backlash, Louis Herman
Louis Herman

Louis Herman is a researcher of dolphin sensory abilities, dolphin cognition, and humpback whales. He is currently professor in the Department of Psychology and a cooperating faculty member of the Department of Oceanography at the University Of Hawaii....
 published an account of artificial language in the bottlenosed dolphin in the human journal Cognition. A major difference between Herman's work and previous research was his emphasis on a method of studying language comprehension only (rather than language comprehension and production by the animal(s)), which enabled rigorous controls and statistical tests, largely due to the fact that he was limiting his researchers to evaluating the animals' physical behaviors (in response to sentences) with blinded observers, rather than attempting to interpret possible language utterances or productions. The dolphins' names here were Akeakamai
Akeakamai

Akeakamai was a female Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, who along with a companion female dolphin named Phoenix, as well as aquariummates Elele and Hiapo, were the subjects of Louis Herman's animal language studies at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii....
 and Phoenix. Irene Pepperberg
Irene Pepperberg

Irene Pepperberg is a scientist noted for her studies in animal cognition, particularly in relation to parrots. She is an adjunct professor of psychology at Brandeis University and a lecturer at Harvard University....
 used the vocal modality for language production and comprehension in an African Grey Parrot
African Grey Parrot

The African Grey Parrot is a medium-sized parrot of the genus Psittacus, endemic to primary and secondary rainforest of West and Central Africa, and is one of the most intelligent birds....
 named Alex
Alex (parrot)

Alex was an African Grey Parrot and the subject of a thirty-year experiment by animal psychology Irene Pepperberg, initially at the University of Arizona and later at Harvard and Brandeis University....
 in the verbal mode, and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh continues to study Bonobos such as Kanzi
Kanzi

Kanzi , is a male Bonobo who has been featured in several studies on great ape language. According to Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a primatologist who has studied the bonobo throughout his life, Kanzi has exhibited advanced linguistic aptitude....
 and Panbanisha. R. Schusterman duplicated many of the dolphin results in his California Sea Lions ("Rocky"), and came from a more behaviorist tradition than Herman's cognitive approach. Schusterman's emphasis is on the importance on a learning structure known as "equivalence class
Equivalence class

In mathematics, given a Set X and an equivalence relation ~ on X, the equivalence class of an element a in X is the subset of all elements in X which are equivalent to a:...
es."

However, overall, there has not been any meaningful dialog between the linguistics and animal language spheres, despite capturing the public's imagination in the popular press. Also, the growing field of language evolution is another source of future interchange between these disciplines. Most primate researchers tend to show a bias toward a shared pre-linguistic ability between humans and chimpanzees, dating back to a common ancestor, while dolphin and parrot researchers stress the general cognitive principles underlying these abilities. More recent related controversies regarding animal abilities include the closely linked areas of Theory of mind
Theory of mind

Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states?beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.?to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one's own....
, Imitation (e.g. Nehaniv & Dautenhahn, 2002), Animal Culture (e.g. Rendell & Whitehead, 2001), and Language Evolution (e.g. Christiansen & Kirby, 2003).

See also


Researchers


Animals


External links

  • (Linguist List)
  • research on animal language.
  • More information on animal communication.
  • includes article "The Language of Birds"
  • Evolution of Brain Structure for Vocal Learning


Further reading

Selected References from Primate, Parrot, Marine Mammal animal language programs, as well as the Linguistics literature:
  • Bickerton, D.
    Derek Bickerton

    Derek Bickerton is a linguistics and Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Based on his work in creole languages in Guyana and Hawaii, he has proposed that the features of creole languages provide powerful insights into the Origins of language of language both by individuals and as a feature of the human species....
     (2005). Language evolution: a brief guide for linguists.
  • Chomsky, N.
    Noam Chomsky

    Avram Noam Chomsky is an United States linguistics, philosopher, cognitive science, political activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor emeritus and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....
      (1957). Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton. Reprint. Berlin and New York (1985).
  • Chomsky, N. (1959). A Review of B.F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior. Language, 35, 26-58.
  • Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
  • Chomsky, N. (1995). The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Chomsky, N. & Lasnik, H. (1993). The theory of principles and parameters, in: J. Jacobs A. von Stechow, W. Sternefeld, and T. Vennemann (eds.) Syntax: an international handbook of contemporary research. Berlin: De Gruyter.
  • Christiansen, M.H. & Kirby, S.H. (Eds.)(2003). Language Evolution: The States of the Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Deacon, T. W. (1997) The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Human Brain. Allen Lane: The Penguin Press.
  • Fitch, W.T., & Hauser, M.D. (2004). Computational constraints on syntactic processing in a nonhuman primate. Science, 303, 377-380.
  • Fouts, R. S. (1973). Acquisition and testing of gestural signs in four young chimpanzees. Science, 180, 978-80.
  • Gardner, R.A., & Gardner, B.T. (1969). Teaching sign language to a chimpanzee. Science, 165, 664-672.
  • Gardner, B.T., & Gardner, R.A. (1975). Evidence for sentence constituents in the early utterances of child and chimpanzee. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 104, 244-267.
  • Gardner R. Allen and Gardner Beatrice T. (1980) Comparative psychology and language acquisition. In Thomas A. Sebok and Jean-Umiker-Sebok (eds.): Speaking of Apes: A Critical Anthology of Two-Way Communication with Man. New York: Plenum Press, pp.287-329.
  • Gisiner, R., & Schusterman, R. J. (1992). Sequence, syntax, and semantics: Responses of a language-trained sea lion (Zalophus californianus) to novel sign combinations. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 106, 78.
  • Gomez, R.L, & Gerken, L. (2000). Infant artificial language learning and language acquisition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 178-186.
  • Goodall, J. (1964). Tool Using and Aimed Throwing in a Community of Free-Living Chimpanzees, Nature, 201, 1264-1266.
  • Hauser, M.D., Chomsky, N. & Fitch, W.T. (2002). The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science, 298, 1569-1579.
  • Hayes, C. (1951). The Ape in Our House. New York: Harper & Row.
  • Herman, L. M. & Forestell, P. H. (1985). Reporting presence or absence of named objects by a language-trained dolphin. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 9, 667-691.
  • Herman, L. M. Kuczaj, S. A. & Holder, M. D. (1993). Responses to anomalous gestural sequences by a language-trained dolphin: Evidence for processing of semantic relations and syntactic information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 122 (2):184-194.
  • Herman, L. M., Richards, D. G. & Wolz, J. P. (1984). Comprehension of sentences by bottlenosed dolphins. Cognition, 16, 129-219.
  • Hockett, C. (1960).The origin of speech. Scientific American, 203, 88-96.
  • Holder, M. D., Herman, L. M. & Kuczaj, S. III (1993). A bottlenosed dolphin's responses to anomalous gestural sequences expressed within an artificial gestural language. In H. R. Roitblat, L. M. Herman & P.E. Nachtigall (Eds): Language and Communication: Comparative Perspectives, 299-308. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Hurford J.R., Studdert-Kennedy, M., & Knight, C. (Eds.) (1998) Approaches to the evolution of language: Social and cognitive bases. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Kako, E. (1999). Elements of syntax in the systems of three language-trained animals. Animal Learning & Behavior, 27, 1-14.
  • Kellogg, W.N., & Kellogg, L.A. (1933). The ape and the child. New York: Whittlesey House (McGraw-Hill).
  • Knight, C., Studdert-Kennedy, M., Hurford, J.R. (Eds.) (2000). The evolutionary emergence of language: Social function and the origins of linguistic form. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Kohts. N. (1935). Infant ape and human child. Museum Darwinianum, Moscow.
  • Ladygina-Kohts, N.N, & de Waal, F.B.M. (2002). Infant Chimpanzee and Human Child: A Classic 1935 Comparative Study of Ape Emotions and Intelligence (Tr: B. Vekker). New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Lenneberg, E.H. (1971) Of language, knowledge, apes, and brains. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 1, 1-29.
  • Miles, H.L. (1990) "The cognitive foundations for reference in a signing orangutan" in S.T. Parker and K.R. Gibson (eds.) "Language" and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Comparative Developmental Perspectives. Cambridge Univ. Press.
  • Nehaniv C. & Dautenhahn, K.(Eds.) (2002). Imitation in Animals and Artifacts. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.
  • Patterson, F., and Linden, E. (1981) The Education of Koko. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
  • Pepperberg, I.M. (1999). The Alex Studies: Cognitive and Communicative abilities of Grey Parrots. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Pinker, S. (1984). Language Learnability and Language Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Reprinted in 1996 with additional commentary.
  • Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct: how the mind creates language. New York: William Morrow & Co.
  • Pinker, S. & Bloom, P. (1990). Natural language and natural selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13, 707-784.
  • Plooij, F.X. (1978). "Some basic traits of language in wild chimpanzees?" in A. Lock (ed.) Action, Gesture and Symbol. New York: Academic Press.
  • Premack, D.
    David Premack

    David Premack is currently emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.He is co-author, with Ann James Premack, of*The Mind of an Ape ...
     (1971). Language in a chimpanzee? Science, 172, 808-822.
  • Rendell, L. & Whitehead, H. (2001) Culture in whales and dolphins. Beharioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 309-382.
  • Roitblat, H.R., Herman, L.M. & Nachtigall, P.E. (Eds.)(1993). Language and Communication: Comparative Perspectives, 299-308. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Rumbaugh Duane M. (1980) Language behavior of apes. In Thomas A. Sebok and Jean-Umiker-Sebok(eds.): Speaking of Apes: A Critical Anthology of Two- Way Communication with Man. New York: Plenum Press, pp.231-259.
  • Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (1990). Language Acquisition in a Nonhuman Species: Implications for the innateness debate. Developmental Psychobiology
    Developmental psychobiology

    Developmental psychobiology is an interdisciplinary field, encompassing developmental psychology, biological psychology, neuroscience and many other areas of biology....
    , 23, 599-620.
  • Savage-Rumbaugh, E.S., McDonald, K., Sevcik, R.A., Hopkins, W.D. & Rupert E, (1986). Spontaneous symbol acquisition and communicative use by pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus). Journal of Experimental Psychology:General, 115, 211-235.
  • Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. and Fields, W. M. (2000). Linguistic, cultural and cognitive capacities of bonobos (Pan paniscus). Culture and Psychology, 6, 131-154.
  • Sayigh, L.S., Tyack, P.L., Wells, R.S. & Scott, M.D. (1990). Signature whistles of free-ranging bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus): stability and mother-offspring comparisons. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology,247-260.
  • Schusterman, R. J. & Gisiner, R. (1988). Artificial language comprehension in dolphins and sea lions: The essential cognitive skills. The Psychological Record, 34, 3-23.
  • Schusterman, R.J. & Gisiner, R. (1989). Please parse the sentence: animal cognition in the Procrustean bed of linguistics. Psychological Record, 39:3-18.
  • Schusterman, R. J. and Kastak, D. (1993) A California Sea-Lion (Zalaphos californianus) is capable of forming equivalence relations. The Psychological Record, 43, 823-839
  • Schusterman, R. J. & Krieger, K. (1984). California sea lions are capable of semantic comprehension. The Psychological Record, 38, 311-348.
  • Seyfarth, R. M. & Cheney, D.L. (1990). The assessment by vervet monkeys of their own and other species’ alarm calls. Animal Behavior, 40, 754-764.
  • Skinner, B.F. (1957). Verbal behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  • Terrace, H. S. (1979). Nim. New York: Knopf.
  • Terrace H.S., Petitto L.A. , Sanders R.J. and Bever T.G. (1979) Can an ape create a sentence? Science 206:891-902.
  • Wittmann, Henri
    Henri Wittmann

    Henri Wittmann is a Canada Linguistics from Quebec. He is best known for his work on Quebec French language....
     (1991). "Classification linguistique des langues signées non vocalement." Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée 10:1.215-88.
  • Witzany, G. (2007) The Logos of the Bios 2. Bio-Communication. Helsinki, Umweb.