Chapter 4 - On the Assessment of Language Competence in the Chimpanzee1

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the main accomplishments of a program designed to teach language to a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). It discusses the functions or exemplars of language—the things an organism must do to give evidence of having language—and describes the strict training procedures. Words; sentences; the interrogative, the conditional, the metalinguistic use of language to teach language; and dimensional concepts, such as color, shape, size, are the major exemplars of language. If language is divided into behavioral constituents and training programs are devised for each constituent, language can be inculcated in organisms that cannot otherwise acquire it. If every complex rule can be broken into simpler components, the only ceiling on the chimp's accomplishments can be the astuteness of the training program. Man and chimpanzee can conceivably attain comparable limits by different steps. The training paradigm involves three steps and the introduction of two words at the same time.