Great Apes example essay topic

Are apes capable of using the language? During the recent time frame scientists have shown that such mammals as chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans are capable of learning and using ASL (American Sign Language) and several artificial languages like, for example, "Yer kish". However, there is a controversy in how far that ability of great apes spans. There are two different groups of researchers, experimenting with language and apes, those who are in favor of a traditional approach, and those who prefer a new, modern one. Most debates among them are about the questions.

Can great apes meaningfully relate words? Can apes create sentences? Having in mind these two questions, I tried to find the answer using the literature written by researchers belonging to both traditional and modern doctrines. Traditional researchers believe that great apes cannot meaningfully relate words. They believe that apes just use words which are mostly liked by their trainers in each concrete situation, but they can be meaningless to apes. For example, only 12 percent of utterances were spontaneous-that is, 88 percent were preceded by a teacher's utterance.

In addition, a famous psychology professor at Columbia University, Herbert Terrace, argues that even if an animal produced such a sequence as water bird, we could not conclude that it was a sentence. Moreover, the words and word order may be meaningful to an English speaker, they may be meaningless to the animal producing them. Many experts have argued: apes spontaneously string word units together. These two scientists proved their affirmations by experiments and, maybe, I, as a result, would believe them; however, there is another group of scientists who states that apes are capable of meaningfully relating words.

This group of scientists is representing a modern doctrine. These researchers believe that apes are able of stringing words together meaningfully. For example, Francine Patterson, a president and research director of the Gorilla Foundation, announces that "after four years of Project Washoe, by 1970, Washoe, a trained gorilla, had acquired 132 signs, and she used these signs in combinations similar to those employed by children during the first stages of learning to talk". Moreover, she, conducting experiments with Koko highlights a moment when she "became irritated with" Koko "negatively", Koko quite accurately described herself as a 'stubborn devil'".

I don't know what that means to other researchers, but for me it really proves that at least one gorilla can string words together meaningfully and, what is more important for me, uses her sense of humor. I think that only when someone masters the language he or she can make jokes on it. Reading all the materials I did not come up with the answer on the question: can great apes meaningfully relate words? I understand that the sentence and the word are the two basic features of human language that separates it from other forms of animal communication.

Therefore, my next question seems very important for studying the capability of apes to use the language. The researchers following a traditional approach think that great apes cannot create sentences. Moreover, Herbert Terrace reported that his ape Nim Chimp sky does not show any progress in the length of his utterances. Also, as Herbert Terrace pointed, "the maximum length of a child's utterances is related very reliably to their average length. Nim's showed no such relationship". These facts show that Nim's ability to create sentences is limited.

Herbert Terrace showed that one more time. He said that "after analyzing videotapes of Nim's "conversations" with his teachers", he "discovered that the sequence of words that looked like sentences were subtle imitations of the teacher's sequences". He "could find no evidences confirming an ape's grammatical competence, either in his own data or those of others, that could not be explained by similar process. After such an authoritative claim can anyone, including me, have any doubts? The answer is yes. That was the example of only one great ape, but there is also the evidence showing that apes can create sentences.

A researcher belonging to a modern doctrine, Francine Patterson, states that shown the photo of famous albino gorilla Snowflake struggling against having a bath, Koko, who also hates baths, signed "Me cry there", while pointing at the picture". Me cry there" can be treated as a sentence; moreover, it can be treated as a meaningful sentence. And as a result of that I cannot answer the question "can apes create sentences" definitely. While some researchers argue that apes can relate words meaningfully and create sentences, others state that apes cannot do that.

Moreover, both parties represented experiments that proved their point of view. A controversy has appeared. But for myself I've got the answer-it is early to say something precisely. There should be lots of experiments conducted, lots of data gathered and only after that we can find the answers to the questions: can great apes relate words meaningfully, and can apes create sente.