Language Origins Theory - Essay Example

Language

It is of crucial significance to note that Allen and Beatrice Gardner are the ones who took the active role of teaching a chimpanzee by the name Washoe sign language. This project started in the year 1966. Both the researchers provided the chimpanzee an enabling environment that was similar to that of raising a human child (Gardner et al, 1). This was very important in driving the point of a feeling of companionship, love as well as passion that children always need during such times. However, borrowing from the fact that a number of similar researchers had been conducted to train the chimpanzees failed due to the approaches employed, Allen and Beatrice Gardner employed a different method. For instance, the initial attempts to train the chimpanzees that failed employed the use of vocals in training the chimpanzees. However, the chimpanzees could not make it because of the difficulty and challenges in producing vocals similar to that of human beings, as well as mastering the same vocals with respect to the meanings associated with them (Kendon, 45-46).

However, having realized the above, Allen and Beatrice Gardner employed a different method of training the chimpanzee called Washoe. They employed sign language having realized that most primates always use a diversity of methods to communicate involving signs and gestures. Thus, such a realization informed the different methods and techniques employed by Gardner and Allen to teach Washoe sign language in order to communicate. They used sign language exclusively in the presence of Washoe. As a result, it is significant to note that Washoe learned a number of sign languages, approximately 350 signs, through various methods. Some of these methods involve imitation as well as instrumental conditioning (Gardner et al, 1).

It is of crucial significance to underscore the fact that primates always employ a diversity of ways to communicate. Primates may always communicate through the use of vocals, gestures as well as other signs. However, relevant to the above, it is of crucial significance to note that other methods may involve marking of territories by the strategy of urinating, as well as employing scent marking. Thus, when the other primate gets access to such marked territories, it always comes to their realization that a certain primate has marked that region. This is a form of communication. On the same note, it is very important to note that the use of vocals in communicating is always a very complex strategy that is only reserved genetically to those primates. In this respect, it is important to note that teaching the primates to master the voices as used by human beings may be a very challenging aspect to achieve. The use of other tactile communications by the primates is also a sure way to pass their information. However, the success in training the primates to communicate depends on the issue of visualization as well as imitation of the signs they see. This is one of the differences that exist between the methods used by Allen and Beatrice Gardner to teach Washoe as compared to the approaches proposed by Susanne K. Langer in her essay.

Susanne K. Langer emphasized the use of vocalization in communication. It is important to note that the use of vocalization may be very interesting if certainly the primates may be able to employ such vocals in conveying messages. However, it is important to note that chimpanzees are always completely unable to produce voiced sounds that are required for oral languages. Tailoring the voices in such a way that they insert words in the voices for people to hear what they are saying is something very impossible. Even though Susanne Langer emphasized the use of vocals in training for language communication, it is significant to note that this only applies in the case of human beings.

In the case of human beings, the use of vocals to communicate is always very easy (Kendon, 45-46). In addition, it is even easier for human beings to master their communication by the use of vocal language since this has always been the case for a long period of time. However, with regards to the primates, the use of vocal language is not the best approach to teach them to communicate. The best approach to employ in teaching the primates to communicate is to observe how they have always been doing it, and employing the same strategy in imparting them with the requisite knowledge. In nature, primates always employ the use of signs and body language in order to communicate. This is the reason why it was very easy for Allen and Beatrice Gardner to teach Washoe how to communicate using the different sign languages.

Relevant to the above, it is of crucial significance to note that even though Suzanne Langer emphasized the use of vocalization to teach language or to communicate, this was not the best approach to teach the primates. This follows that primates are physically unable to vocalize words. Thus, since Washoe and other primates are physically unable to vocalize words, the use of sign language was the best approach to employ in teaching the primates to communicate (Gardner et al, 1). This can be reinforces by a number of reasons as detailed below.

The first reason is that primates always employ the use of visualization a lot in learning something new. The primates may visualize how their parents carry their young ones. In this manner, a lesson is passed from one primate to the other. The message gets ingrained in their minds very easily as opposed to using vocals that they are physically unable to employ. Other than carrying their young ones, the primates may also learn a lot through the use of visualization, for instance, itching themselves, playing among other things. All these information is always passed across from generation to generation through visualization and imitation.

Through visualization, the primates stand a great chance of emulating as well as imitating what they have seen the others do. They always do this a number of times until they master the technique. However, this may be very challenging when it comes to the application of vocals. The use of vocalization always creates a rather confusing environment because of a number of different things. The first thing may be the difference in tones, the pitch, speed at which one talks as well as pronunciation among other things. A primate may have to find it very challenging to master all these in a span of time to an extent that they use it effectively. This is the reason why it was very difficult to teach the chimpanzees thus prompted the failure of Gua and Vicki projects (Kouts, 15-17).

In respect to the above, it is quite significant to underscore the fact that through visualization, the imitation is possible. However, it is prudent to note that imitation must be effected through the use of gestures. This has been one of the most important ways in which animals; especially the primates communicate (Peterson and Goodall, 21-22). The proposition by Susanne K. Langer to use vocal in oral language is clearly contradictory in this respect. For instance, the use of voice to learn a language employs two or more multifaceted approaches in mastery of a subject. However, this is not possible for the primates. For instance, when one teaches using voice, he or she must use signs to show what they mean. In connection to the above, to illustrate, a teacher may decide to show the student what a fruit is by pointing the fruit and saying “this is a fruit” for the students to know what he or she means. Thus, it means that in order to learn by vocal training, the person or object being trained must have a double-edged attention, and they must run concurrently (Peterson and Goodall, 21-22).

Thus, when training the primates using the voice, they must be able to learn the voice as well as the shown signs or images. This is physically impossible for the primates. This must have been the reason why the project and attempts to train or teach the chimpanzees through vocal language failed because of the difficulty to learn two confusing things to produce the intended meaning at a time (Jane, 113). However, if the projects just aimed at training the chimpanzees to produce certain sounds without words, they could have been possible to do so. But, producing the sounds with words in such sounds and associating them with certain meanings is totally a different thing since this now requires mastery of three different things namely producing relevant or similar sound, incorporating relevant words in such sounds and observing the maintenance or retention of the meaning of the vocals produced. In normal sense, this is only a preserve of human beings but not chimpanzees as was emphasized by Susanne Langer.

However, the approach of teaching Washoe was the best since it only focused on using sign language. Thus Washoe was to focus on learning only what the sign meant and there was no difficulty imitating such signs since the primates are used to employing signs, gestures and other body languages in their normal communications whether domesticated or in the wild (Jane, 113). Washoe understood sign language conceptually through understanding the signs and signals. This is the reason why Washoe could depict a sense of emotion and self realization when her young ones died. The same was evident when Washoe miffed at Kat who had long disappeared from Washoe’s vicinity as described by Donovan et al, 2008 in the book entitled “Anthropology and Law” as described below.

“People who should be there for her and aren't are often given the cold shoulder--her way of informing them that she's miffed at them. Washoe greeted Kat [the caretaker] in just this way when she finally returned to work with the chimps. Kat made her apologies to Washoe, then decided to tell her the truth, signing "MY BABY DIED". Washoe stared at her, then looked down. She finally peered into Kat's eyes again and carefully signed "CRY", touching her cheek and drawing her finger down the path a tear would make on a human (Chimpanzees don't shed tears). Kat later remarked that one sign told her more about Washoe and her mental capabilities than all her longer, grammatically perfect sentences” (Donovan and Anderson, 190).

This clearly shows that Washoe developed emotions and self awareness as evident from the signs that she showed Kat having realized and felt what she underwent. This follows the fact that Washoe had also faced the same situations in life.