STRUCTURE AND PERFORMANCE IN ANIMAL LANGUAGE

Abstract

YOUATT,¹ in 1835, found it hard to explain why his young chimpanzee "had not the slightest power of speech, though he could scream loudly." The fact that higher animals do not make "appropriate" use of their otherwise suitably constructed organ of voice prompted many speculations. The conception that production of sounds and language are related to the degree of development of the brain rather than to the structure of the larynx has found numerous advocates. The origin of such statements can be traced to the sentence of Darwin, dating from 1871: "The fact of the higher apes not using their vocal organs no doubt depends on their intelligence not having been sufficiently advanced." This interpretation was extended to conditions as found in man, and so when Polyak, McHugh and Judd,² in 1946, wrote that "It is legitimate... to conclude that the cause of relatively late development of the