Language, Communication, Chimpanzees

Abstract

Following the repeated failures registered between 1930 and 1950 in attempting to set up phonic communication with an ape, Allen and Beatrice Gardner (1969, 1970, 1971) undertook, from 1967 on, to establish communication of a linguistic nature through a totally different medium: the analogical (nondigital) gestural language of the deaf—mute. Their hypothesis was based on the following: First, the phonatory apparatus of the ape differs from that of man, and this element probably accounts for the previous failures observed by authors such as Yerkes. Second, while the young ape very rapidly loses interest in and aptitude for vocal prattle, it retains an abundant gestural prattle, remaining, as an adult, a very imitative and gesticulatory animal.

Translated from the French by Pierre and Mireille Martin.