Theo Todman's Web Page - Paper Abstracts

Introduction

1. J’aime Wells is an ape talking about the possibility of apes talking.
2. I live a few blocks away from some unusual neighbors: three chimpanzees who fluently use American Sign Language. Their names are Tatu, Dar, and Loulis, and their more famous family member Washoe was the first non-human to acquire a human language. Their home is the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI), located on the campus of Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. I have been a volunteer docent [public educator] there since 2007.
3. The language capabilities of non-human apes have been studied in several important projects, with widely different methods. In this article I will focus on Washoe and her family. I believe that these chimpanzees are genuinely using language, and that much of the philosophical resistance to this claim is based on misunderstandings of the research and its results. The misunderstandings and doubts come from at least two sources. First, some philosophers and linguists defend theories which imply that only humans can learn language. However, empirical research results should be considered on their own merits, regardless of their implications for previously-held theories. Second, journalists writing for a non-academic audience often express doubt about whether Washoe’s language use has really been proven. Sometimes they assume that the results of all ape language projects must be the same. For example, Washoe is often discussed alongside another chimpanzee, Nim Chimpsky, who also participated in a research project using American Sign Language (ASL). Although the two projects were similar in some ways, the methodology of the two research teams differed significantly, as did the results. Any conclusions drawn about one specific ape language project should not be assumed to apply to other projects.
4. Here I will summarize some of the results of the research Washoe and her family have been involved in. Then I will briefly consider what these results might mean for the question of whether humans are hard-wired for language acquisition.