Language in Animals

Have you ever really thought about the complexities involved with learning a language?  Try for just a moment to list all the grammatical rules involved with language production.  I don't know about you but I can hardly think of 5.  Yet we unconsciously make very complex sentences all the time.  What's more, we're not just parroting what we hear from those around us.  New combinations of words are created everyday!

But this leads us to the question- are human beings the only ones with the capacity to create and use complex language?  The literature on the science is quite divided.  I even have mixed opinions on the matter as I think we do not appreciate the intelligence of most animals.  But is there is one particularly empirical study by a man named Herb Terrace who seems to provide the most unbiased research.

It should also be noted such studies have the added
difficulty of undomesticated behavior such as biting.

He took a young chimp (named Nim Chimpsky after the linguist Noam Chomsky) and had a human family raise him in their urban home.  Due to physiological differences between humans and apes, chimpanzees can not properly vocalize human speech.  So, the family raised their young Chimpsky by teaching him sign language.  He learned about 125 signs which is a pretty decent array.

However, when Herb Terrace returned for rigorous testing, he found no evidence of language use.  Nim could use signs he had been taught, but he could not create novel sentences.

Now I will by no mean argue this is the only such study performed with apes.  The literature is full of evidence and counter-evidence for other species understanding complex language.  Unfortunately many of these studies are hard to assess because of how attached the researchers become to their animals.  Just as pet owners swear their dog knows exactly what they're thinking, researchers are prone to bias about their animals as well.

Reknown linguist Noam Chomsky.

So, I leave the question in your hands- how well can animals comprehend language?