Chimpanzee communication: links to human language
| Dates: | 11 May 2015 |
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| Times: | 12:00 - 13:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | Faculty of Life Sciences |
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| Who is it for: | University staff |
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| Speaker: | Katie Slocombe |
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Computational and Evolutionary Biology Seminar Series 2015
One of the key elements of human language is reference, with referential words allowing us to
communicate about a multitude of objects and events. The evolutionary origins of this aspect of
language have been long debated. Non-human primate alarm calls and food calls have been
identified as ‘functionally referential’, in that acoustically distinct calls are given to specific events
and listeners respond as if they understand the referent of the call. Although on the surface these
primate calls seem analogous to human referential words, it is unclear if the psychological
mechanisms underpinning the production of the calls is similar. I will present a series of studies
investigating chimpanzee food calls, which first establish that they function referentially, before
examining two aspects of flexibility in the production of these calls. Together these studies show
that the psychological mechanisms underlying the production of functionally referential calls in one
of our closest relatives may be more flexible and have more similarities to those involved in
language production than previously thought.
Please
Speaker
Katie Slocombe
Organisation: University of York
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
Michael Smith Lecture Theatre
Michael Smith Building
Manchester
