Understanding Questions
Another hallmark of human language is that words are understood
as representing things. The word, "ball," for example,
represents objects of a
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| Akeakanmai presses the "no"
paddle to indicate absence of the referenced object
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certain class, their properties, and associations. This representation is sometimes referred to as the property of linguistic reference. One of the major tests of whether a symbol has acquired the property of representing an object is the ability to understand the symbol when the object referred to is absent. The bonobo Kanzi, for example, could understand an instruction to retrieve an object that was in another room. We investigated whether the gestural symbols we used with the dolphin Akeakamai had acquired the property of linguistic reference. Within the gestural language we used with her, we could ask
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| Akeakamai presses the "yes" paddle to indicate
presence of the referenced object |
questions about the contents of her habitat. For example, we may show
her a Frisbee and a Basket and place them in her pool. We can then
ask her a series of questions, such as, "Is there a Frisbee?"
"Is there a hoop?" "Is there a basket?" She can
answer each questions by pressing a paddle to her right to indicate
"Yes" (present) or one to her left to indicate "No"
(Absent). She is rarely wrong in such tests and is as proficient at
indicating correctly that a named object is absent as she is at indicating
that a named object is present. The key finding then is that the dolphin
understood symbolic references to absent objects. She understood,
therefore, that the gestural symbols used on her language system represented
things even if they were not immediately present. The dolphin's ability
to tell us what is or is not present also shows her awareness of the
contents of her physical world.
Herman, L. M., Pack A. A. & Morrel-Samuels,
P. (1993). Representational and conceptual skills of dolphins. In
H. R. Roitblat, L. M. Herman & P. Nachtigall (Eds.): Language
and Communication: Comparative Perspectives, Pp. 273-298. Hillside,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Herman, L. M. (1990). Cognitive performance of dolphins in visually
guided Herman, L. M. and Forestell, P. H. (1985). Reporting presence
or absence of named objects by a language-trained dolphin. Neuroscience
and Biobehavioral Reviews, 9, 667-691.
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