Monkeys can recognize simple grammar

Monkeys can create complete sentences and say they have accents - a new study shows that this relative of humans also recognizes simple grammar.

'We are really curious to know if there are basic language trends in monkeys that add sounds to the tail like in humans, such as adding' ed 'after English verbs to form. past, ' quoted Ansgar Endress, a Harvard linguist, who led the study.

Previous research in the squirrel monkey Pana (cotton-top tamarin or Saguinus geoffroyi by scientific name) shows that the species can understand the basic grammar, for example, to determine which words the word follows. in a sentence.

But also from that study, the results published in the 2004 Science paper suggest that monkeys cannot understand complex grammar , for example when words in one depend on each other but are separated.

While the study suggests that monkeys have no knowledge of complex communication, recent research shows that squirrel monkeys Pana can grasp at least one complex concept: it is a prefix and a suffix. .

'Play' word

In the study, 30 minutes a day, Endress and her colleagues turned on an English tape recording for a herd of monkeys locked in the barn.

Half of the monkeys heard words of different origins but shared the same suffix (eg bi-shoy, mo-shoy, and lu-shoy). The other half hears a fixed prefix paired with different roots (eg, shoy-bi, shoy-mo, and shoy-lu).

(Photo: Michael Nichols / NGS )

The next day, each monkey was taken to a private observation area with audio speakers and video recording device to record their behavior. These children have heard more words.

Most words follow the language rule that monkeys heard the previous day, that is, half of the monkeys continue to hear the 'shoy' suffix and half hear the 'shoy' prefix.

However, sometimes researchers weave into a irregular word. For example, when the speaker is playing with a 'shoy' suffix, there is a 'shoy' prefix inserted, or vice versa.

Mind structure

Other biologists did not participate and did not know anything about the purpose of the study required to observe and record the time each time the animal turned its head toward the speaker.

When the monkeys heard a word contrary to the rules they had known the day before, they would look at the speaker with a gesture that looked like a startle, the observation team noted.

This finding is interesting, Endress explains, revealing that our distant cousin seems to have a mental structure that determines the structure of words, such as prefixes and suffixes.

The results of the study will appear in the journal Biology Letters this week.