Can Chimpanzees Talk?

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the largely North American pursuit of debating whether the chimpanzee can be taught to speak. The paper explores the numerous experiments and hypotheses and the contention among social scientists. The paper describes how this work has continued since the 1950s and with earlier behavioral work in the 1930s, yet chimpanzees show little aptitude or interest in speaking with Homo sapiens.

From the Paper:

"The human enterprise of teaching chimpanzees to communicate in English has continued, as a venture of psychologists, as well as primatologists. In the 1920s and 1930s, Robert Yerkes examined the behaviour of chimpanzees in their African habitat, noticing that they would imitate his actions but not the sounds he made. Before long, the first of what has proven a succession of husband and wife chimpanzee-parents and language teachers materialized as in Kellogg & Kellogg who, in the early 1930s, stated that the vocal apparatus of the chimpanzee had made their teaching efforts impossible."

More papers on Can Chimpanzees Talk?:

• Essay # 87838 : "Chimpanzee Talk"
• Essay # 72286 : "Talk Shows"
• Argumentative Essay # 7635 : "Double Talk"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: