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Functional Dimensions of Ape-Human Discourse
James D Benson, William S Greaves
Functional Dimensions of Ape-Human Discourse asks the question, 'What do interactions between apes and humans mediated by language tell us?'. In order to answer this question the authors explore language-in-context, drawing on a multi-leveled, multi-functional linguistics. The levels are context of... Read more
Published: 2005
Pages: 129
eBook: 9781904768050
Functional Dimensions of Ape-Human Discourse asks the question, 'What do interactions between apes and humans mediated by language tell us?'. In order to answer this question the authors explore language-in-context, drawing on a multi-leveled, multi-functional linguistics. The levels are context of culture, context of situation, semantics, lexicogrammar, and phonology; and the functions are ideational, interpersonal, and textual. Chapter 1 discusses a negotiation between the bonobo Kanzi and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh in terms of discourse-semantics, lexicogrammar, and the ideational and interpersonal metafunctions of language. Chapter 2 reinterprets Sue Savage-Rumbaugh et. al. Language Comprehension in Ape and Child (1993) in terms of the ideational metafunction, and provides corroborative evidence for Kanzi's symbolic processing abilities, opening a window into the consciousness of at least one non-human primate. Chapter 3 compares three snapshots from comprehensive studies based on large amounts of data (monkey calls, language development in a human child, and a dialogue between Kanzi's sibling Panbanisha and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh) from an evolutionary perspective, showing different ways in which the level of grammar comes to be wedged in between semantics and expression. Chapter 4 articulates a methodology incorporating public domain software for the comprehensive analysis of ape-human interaction. Although bonobo-human interaction is used as an example, the methodology could be utilized for studies of chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.
| Cover | Cover | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Contents | v | ||
| List of contributors | vi | ||
| Preface | 1 | ||
| Acknowledgements | 2 | ||
| References | 3 | ||
| Chapter 1 | 4 | ||
| 1 Introduction | 5 | ||
| 2 Questions to be asked | 8 | ||
| 3 Data overview | 10 | ||
| 4 Analysis | 13 | ||
| 5 Conclusion | 30 | ||
| Notes | 34 | ||
| References | 35 | ||
| Appendix 1 | 37 | ||
| Appendix 2 | 43 | ||
| Chapter 2 | 46 | ||
| 1 Introduction: consciousness and language | 46 | ||
| 2 SFL concepts: a brief sketch | 48 | ||
| 3 The methodology of the experiment reinterpreted in terms of SFL | 52 | ||
| 4 Deacon’s referential hierarchy: icon, index, and symbol | 58 | ||
| 5 Kanzi’s grammar | 62 | ||
| 6 Conclusion | 73 | ||
| Note | 74 | ||
| References | 74 | ||
| Chapter 3 | 76 | ||
| 1. Introduction: grounding assumptions | 77 | ||
| 2 Monkey calls: indexical signs and emergent semiotic complexity | 78 | ||
| 3 Language development in Nigel, a human child: indexical signs and emergent semiotic complexity | 84 | ||
| 4 Ape-human interaction (Sue-Panbanisha) | 88 | ||
| 5 Conclusion | 96 | ||
| References | 97 | ||
| Appendix 1 | 99 | ||
| Chapter 4 | 100 | ||
| 1 Introduction | 101 | ||
| 2 Methodological assumptions: the multilayered informativeness of systemic choice | 102 | ||
| 3 Methodology | 109 | ||
| 4 Conclusion | 119 | ||
| References | 119 | ||
| Index | 120 |