Language as a window on rationality
This chapter provides an overview of language research conducted with apes over four decades aiming to delineate the circumstances that promote linguistic capacities. The findings reveal that language can be readily acquired by apes under three years of age, without any training, by immersion in a social environment where English is spoken normally to provide a narrative of everyday life and of social interactions. The results also indicate that lexical production in apes develops spontaneously from untrained comprehension.
Keywords: apes, linguistic capacity, social environment, language development, language, lexical production
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