this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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You know, I've been thinking, has anyone ever tried teaching a synthetic language to a non-human animal?
A gorilla might not be able to distinguish between "Sam sees Becky" and "Becky sees Sam", but it's not unreasonable they could track "ты" vs. "тебя" given they can track a variety of other intangible distinctions.
The usual standard with apes seems to be sign language, and none of them have been able to use it to the standard of human children once you peel back the wishful thinking of certain researchers. They can learn words, they can use words to get things, but they can't make the jump to grammar.