Can animals learn language?
Koko the gorilla
http://www.koko.org/
Koko is a 32-year old female gorilla who
has stunned the world by being able to
learn and use human language.
Dr. Francine "Penny" Patterson is Koko’s
keeper for 25 years and has taught her
how to use sign language.
The Gorilla Foundation
How many words does Koko know?
Information from the website
During the course of the study, Koko has
advanced further with language than any
other non-human. Koko has a working
vocabulary of over 1000 signs. Koko
understands approximately 2,000 words of
spoken English. Koko initiates the majority
of conversations with her human
companions and typically constructs
statements averaging three to six words.
My essay
 According to the Gorilla Foundation website,
Koko is able to use more than 1000 signs, and
she can understand 2000 words of English.
(Source:http://www.koko.org/world/, Sept 23,
2003)
OR
 According to the Gorilla Foundation, “Koko has a
working vocabulary of over 1000 signs”.
(Source:http://www.koko.org/world/, Sept 23,
2003)
Can Koko make sentences or create new
words?
On Koko’s film
When presented with a bracelet for the
first time, Koko was able to use a
combination of two existing signs, ‘hand’
and ‘necklace’, in a new combination to
mean “bracelet”.
In my essay
Not only can some animals communicate
with human beings through sign language,
they appear to have the ability to be
creative as well. For example, in the film
“A Conversation with Koko”, one sees how
the gorilla can invent the word “bracelet”
by combining the signs “hand” and
“necklace”.
Alex the Grey Parrot
http://www.alexfoundation.org/
Alex is a grey parrot who not only can
imitate human speech, he can also
understand the concepts behind the words
(e.g. same and different, colour, shape).
The Alex Foundation
On Alex’s website
Thus when shown two identical objects or
ones that vary with respect to some or all
of the attributes of color, shape, and
material, Alex responds with the
appropriate category label as to which
attribute is "same" or "different" for any
combination; if, however, nothing is same
or different, he replies "none".
In my essay
Not only can Alex the Grey Parrot
understand lots of English words, he can
actually respond correctly to questions
about sameness and difference, e.g.
whether two cubes are of the same colour.
(http://www.alexfoundation.org/research/ar
ticles/harvard/harvard.html, Sept 23, 2003)
Book on Alex
Pepperberg, Irene Maxine. 1999. The Alex
studies : cognitive and communicative
abilities of grey parrots. Cambridge,
Mass. : Harvard University Press.
Can Alex understand relative concepts?
In Dr Pepperberg’s book, we find the
following sentence on page 166:
“In sum, Alex showed some comprehension
of a relative concept, that of size.”
My essay
Dr Irene Pepperberg has conducted a
series of experiments which showed that
Alex the Grey Parrot is able to understand
the relative concept of size (bigger than,
smaller than). (Pepperberg 1999:166)
List of references
Pepperberg, Irene Maxine. 1999. The Alex
studies : cognitive and communicative
abilities of grey parrots. Cambridge,
Mass. : Harvard University Press.
Yule, George. 1996. The Study of
Language. Second edition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
The Gorilla Foundation website
(http://www.koko.org/)
Further information
Consult Dr David Gardner’s webpage
“Plagiarism and how to avoid it”
http://ec.hku.hk/plagiarism/