Subject: ape language

the latest issue of the journal of nih research ( vol 7 , no . 1 jan . 1995 pp . 50-55 ) contains a short review article by pat shipman on human evolution . on the cover , the article is referred to as " fading lines between apes and humans , " but actually it is titled " climbing the family tree : what makes a hominid a hominid ? " . the discussion on linguistic abilities might be of interest to other subscribers to the linguist list . the author discusses kanzi and sue savage - rumbaugh 's 1994 book " kanzi : the ape at the brink of the human mind , " [ john wiley and sons , ny ] . according to savage - rumbaugh , kanzi does have a rudimentary grammar , can use displaced referents and arbitrary symbols ( in this case , icons or " lexigrams " on a computer ) . s - r thinks his ability equals that of a 2 year old child . in later section , the work of derek bickerton ( " language and species , " 1990 [ university of chicago press ] is summarized . bickerton admits that kanzi , other apes and young children use " proto-language , " but not full language because of the lack if grammatical elements . most of the rest of the section on language is devoted to broca 's area and cortical specialization . - - john
