How to learn a language like a chimpanzee

Abstract

This paper develops the hypothesis that languages may be learned by means of a kind of cause‐effect analysis. This hypothesis is developed through an examination of E. Sue Savage‐Rumbaugh's research on the abilities of chimpanzees to learn to use symbols. Savage‐Rumbaugh herself tends to conceive of her work as aiming to demonstrate that chimpanzees are able to learn the Preferential function’ of symbols. Thus the paper begins with a critique of this way of viewing the chimpanzee's achievements. The hypothesis that Savage‐Rumbaugh's chimpanzees learn to use symbols by means of cause‐effect analysis is then supported through a detailed examination of the tasks they have learned to perform. Next, it is explained how language learning in humans might be conceptualized along similar lines. The final section attempts to explain how the pertinent cause‐effect analysis ought to be conceived.