ALR- ape language research-looking into whether it is possible to teach English to West Ham or Birmingham City fans
Chomsky hierarchy (the) - Noam’s at the top, and whoever agrees with him most is in 2nd place
critical period- (more…)
All from the book The First Word, that rare gem- a popular science book about linguistics. It drags a bit at the end, but these are from the interesting middle bit (just after the bitchy beginning bit where she lays into Chomsky- hurrah!)
“it appears that dolphins name themselves. [They] produce a distinct individual sound that develops in their first year of life whenever they meet another dolphin. It’s always the same, and always distinct from any other dolphin’s whistle” pg 118
“dolphin babies also pass through a babbling phase [like human babies before they produce their first word]… baby bats babble as well.” pg 143
“elephants in Kenya have been recorded making almost perfect reproductions of the sound of trucks from a road nearby” pg 145
“Hoover, a harbor seal at the New England Aquarium… surprised visitors by saying ‘Hey, hey, you, get outta there!” pg 146
“researchers found that humans aren’t the only species with the ability to identify different [human] languages based on their characteristic rhythms” pg 151
“no animal communication system has an equivalent for ‘no’”
“vervet monkeys use a fall in pitch to mark the end of an utterance and… other vervets seem to interpret this as a signal to take a turn in vocalizing, like humans do” pg 155