When1: 1969
When2: 1989
Who: R. Allen Gardner [Gardner, R. Allen]/Beatrix T. Gardner [Gardner, Beatrix T.]
What: primatologist
Where: USA
works\ Teaching sign language to an ape [1969]; Comparative psychology and language acquisition [1980]; Vocabulary Test for Chimpanzees (pan troglodytes) [1984]; Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzees [1989: with T. E. Van Cantfort]
Detail: Beatrix lived 1933 to 1995. After four years of training, the chimpanzee Washoe acquired over 100 signs of American Sign Language. It heard no other language. Some signs were for general classes, rather than specific objects and events. Some signs changed or extended. Washoe used sign order and substituted signs with similar meanings or shapes. However, no primates developed signing themselves. Humans had to teach them. Humans cued chimpanzees to make signs, and chimpanzees signed to get rewards. Chimpanzees signed to each other socially but not for rewards.
Social Sciences>Linguistics>History>Animal Language
6-Linguistics-History-Animal Language
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Date Modified: 2022.0224