who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

335apes’ and humans’ mental abilities. The 1970s and 1980s was a booming period oflanguage experiments when our non-talking relatives suddenly started communicatingwith us using sign language and other non-vocal means of communication.The experiments produced impressive results. Scholars discovered that apes couldrecognize themselves in the mirror as individuals, they could invent new symbols usingthe signals they already knew, and according to some authors they not only had someelements of syntax and metalanguage, but were able "to acquire concepts and generatehypotheses and strategies" (Rumbaugh et al. 1994:321). The achievements of thebonobos were particularly impressive. These achievements lead the head of theexperiments, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, to declare: “…apes posses the cognitive capacitiesfor language but lack the proper organ of expression” (Savage-Rumbaugh et al.,1993:109), and “Kanzi’s ability to understand human speech suggests that, if apes couldproduce human-like sounds, they might well invent and utilize a language that would besimilar to our own, although probably considerably simpler” (Savage-Rumbaugh et al.,1993:107).Regarding questions, it has been documented for a few decades already that thevocabulary of the enculturated apes contains question words as well, like "Who", “What”,Where” in Washoe’s and Nim's vocabulary (Bronowski & Bellugi, 1980:110; Terrace,1980:11, 167). So it seems almost obvious that apes must be able to ask questions.Nevertheless, according to the accounts of the experiment authors, apes do not askquestions. Wonderful examples of conversations with their human teachers have beenrecordedand published (Terrace, 1980; Gardner & Gardner, 1975, 1984; Premack, 1976;Rumbaugh, 1977; Rumbaugh & Gill, 1977; Patterson & Linden, 1981). Analysis of theirconversations shows that in human-primate conversations questions are asked by thehumans only. The same can be said about the question words: apes understand themand give appropriate responses, but amazingly they themselves do not use questionwords in conversations with their human teachers.The apes’ ability to comprehend questions is quite amazing. Describing Nim'sability to be engaged in conversations on many topics, Terrace notes: "...His teacherswould ask him questions such as What color?, What name of?, Who?, ... Nim showed hiscomprehension by making an appropriate response... As his ability to sign improved, Nimbegan to reply to his teachers questions with more than one sign" (Terrace, 1980: 166-167). But the ability to ask questions proved to be much more difficult.Ann and David Premacks designed a potentially promising methodology to teachapes to ask questions in the 1970s: “In principal interrogations can be taught either byremoving an element from a familiar situation in the animal’s world or by removing theelement from a language that maps the animal’s world. It is probable that one can inducequestions by purposefully removing key elements from a familiar situation. Suppose achimpanzee received its daily ration of food at a specific time and place, and then oneday the food was not there. A chimpanzee trained in the interrogatives might inquire‘Where is my food?’ or, is Sarah’s case ‘My food is ?’ Sarah was never put in a situationthat might induce such interrogation because for our purposes it was easier to teach Sarahto answer questions” (Premack & Premack, 1991 [1972]:20-21).More than a decade later after writing these words of how to teach apes to askquestions, Premacks wrote: "Though she [Sarah] understood the question, she did not