The "Speaking" Monkeys and Related Problems

Recent works on the problem of the biological roots of human language are reviewed with focus on Z. A. Zorina & A. A. Smirnova's book O chem rasskazali "govoryashchie" obez'yany: Sposobni li vysshie zhivotnye operirovat' simbolami? ([What Did "Talking" Monkeys Talk About? Are Higher Animals Capable of Operating with Symbols?] Moscow: Yazyki slavyanskikh kul'tur, 2006). Although Zorina & Smirnova show that chimpanzees & bonobos are capable of the instrumental activity attributed to early hominids, having the capacities of theory of mind & so-called Machiavellian intellect, the union of thought & speech in humans contrasts with the developmental dissociation of intellect & communication systems in other animal species, as elementary judgmental behavior or "thought" is an individual capacity whereas signal systems evolve with social organization. The evolution of human language is therefore to be seen as a process of integration of these two disparate capacities, speech & thought, & may be evidenced in progress in data from simian studies. References. Adapted from the source document