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Inchoateknowledge Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

Kanzi

0Kanzy is a pygmy chimpanzee. When he was two and a half he was separated briefly from his mother (who had already begun her on language training) and he suddenly, without any coaxing at all, began to use her board and the symbols on it to request food and activities and announce what he was about to do. In one day he showed that he had learned signs his mother failed to learn. His trainers decided that from that point on Kanzi should be trained to use symbols, but that his training would reflect the casual, spontaneous learning he had already demonstrated. Kanzi has never been required to use symbols to get anything -- if he does use them it is because he has seen someone else using them, in much the same way (it's thought) a child learns to speak.02br
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00Kanzi is quite different from all other chimpanzees that have been taught to use symbols to express their thoughts. For one thing, he understands spoken English. Kanzi's trainers have even tested him with words produced by a speech synthesizer, one that produces a sound for every letter of the alphabet and comes out with very weird, flat, chipped, monotonous kind of speech, only two-thirds of which is understandable by adult humans. Kanzi understands about two-thirds of it as well, meaning that the emotional content, unintentional stresses on words and any of the other cues that might have tipped him to the meaning of the words spoken by his trainers cannot explain his understanding of speech.02br
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00There is also evidence that he can comprehend grammatically complicated commands, as long as they are precise. So if there is an orange sitting in front of Kanzi, and he is told,'Go to the sitting room and get the orange,' he hesitates ( is he thinking 'which orange'?). But if the sentence is rearranged: 'Get the orange that is in the sitting room,' he has no trouble, even that there is that complicated (for a chimp) phrase in the middle, 'that's in the.' In fact at the age eight Kanzi was better at understanding such sentences than a two-year-old girl who was being asked the same sorts of questions. However, even a brilliant performance by Kanzi is going to be treated with caution by the sceptics, and there has already been some doubt cast on exactly what the symbols on the board mean to Kanzi. It has been argued that because Kanzi switches from one meaning to the other for a given symbol, depending on the context, the symbols cannot mean the same thing as a word means to a child. For instance, Kanzi will use 'juice' to refer to the 'drink', the place where he gets the drink, or the act of going to that place. But when tested for his vocabulary, he links the symbol 'juice' with the picture of a glass of juice. Critics use this evidence to claim Kanzi just uses the symbol as a means of solving different problems in different circuimstances and has no idea it means'juice' all the time.02br
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00This sounds like a tricky argument, because children do what appears to be the same sort of thing, like pointing to the chair and saying 'Daddy'. But the critics say that children rarely use a word for two different kind of things, like using 'table' to mean both the thing in the kitchen and breakfast, whereas Kanzi does.02br
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001. What approach have Kanzi's trainers taken to him?02br
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  • 00Constantly changing on02li
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  • 00one that does not follow a strict pattern ®02li
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  • 00a special devised one02li
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  • 00one that gives him rewards for his efforts02li
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002. What does the experiment with the speech synthesizer suggest?02br
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  • 00The way words are stressed plays a vital in the understanding of them02li
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  • 00Chimpanzees are better at understanding certain types of sound than others ®02li
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  • 00Kanzi is really capable of understanding speech in English02li
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  • 00Kanzi is unable to understand speech that has an emotional content02li
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003. What does the example of the orange suggest, according to the writer?02br
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  • 00Certain tasks are more appealing to Kanzi than others02li
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  • 00Kanzi is unable to make any sense of certain instructions02li
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  • 00Researchers often make mistakes in this kind of research02li
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  • 00Kanzi understands the meaning of sentences from their structures ®02li
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004. People who are doubtful about Kanzi's language ability believe that02br
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  • 00he gives the same word too many meanings ®02li
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  • 00it is wrong to compare his ability with that of a child02li
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  • 00the symbols have been created to make him seem intelligent02li
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  • 00children connect objects with places more accurately than he does02li
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00.5. What is the writer's purpose in the passage?02br
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  • 00to present a balanced view of the experiments with Kanzi ®02li
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  • 00to promote the notion that chimpanzees are intelligent02li
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  • 00to cast doubt on the conclusions drawn by Kanzi's trainers02li
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  • 00to point out the similarities between chimpanzees and chidren02li
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00Do you agree with me on my choices (marked by ®)?02br
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00Thanks0-
  

Top answer

0 I would disagree with your answer to 2). My choice would be 02br 01li 00Kanzi is really capable of understanding speech in English 02li 00 0-

  • 0 I would disagree with your answer to 2).
  • My choice would be 02br 01li 00Kanzi is really capable of understanding speech in English 02li 00 0-
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2 Answers
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0 I would disagree with your answer to 2). My choice would be 02br
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  • 00Kanzi is really capable of understanding speech in English 02li
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    0Hi Nona02br
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    00Thank you.02br
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    00Yes indeed0-

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