Tamarin monkeys show flair for grammar
Tamarin monkeys can recognise when the syllables of a word are arranged in the wrong order, researchers have demonstrated in a study which could offer clues into how language evolved.
In the study, the cotton-top tamarins were trained to understand two-syllable terms and researchers then gauged their reaction when the syllables were played in the wrong order, or with an unfamiliar affix attached to a familiar prefix.
“We simply measured how often the monkeys looked to the speaker when we played the items,” lead researcher Ansgar Endress of Harvard University told the BBC.
“If they got used to, or bored by, the pattern, then they might be more interested in items that violate it – because they are something new – than in items that are consistent with the pattern.”
According to Marc Hauser, who was also involved in the study, the research demonstrated how human languages had incorporated memory processes such as temporal ordering common to many different species.
“Simple temporal ordering is shared with non-human animals,” he said. “This has an important role. In bird song or whale song, for example, there’s a temporal ordering to the notes and that’s critical for communication.”
Hauser said temporal ordering also helped to explain how children learn to use language intuitively.
“As a child learns to use the past tense they may generalise and use a suffix wrongly, but they will never generalise in the wrong direction. You never hear them say ed-walk instead of walked.”