He is an ex-parrot. Sorry, couldn’t resist. I have a hard time feeling sad about this one because I have a disproportionately large sense of antipathy toward animal language projects. They attract outrageous claims that get reported uncritically by the media, and I don’t think the evidence is all there.
African Grays are clever little blighters, and Alex was the most famous. His trainer Dr Pepperdine stopped short of claiming that Alex was using human language, describing the exchanges as ‘complex two-way communication’. Evidently he was able to parrot 150 words in ways that humans found significant.
As I understand it, the work suffered from the same problems as work with apes and so forth. The animal repeats signs, and perhaps even communicates using them, but is that language use in a human sense? Not according to lingusits, who argue that language use requires an understanding of the system of language and the components that make it up. They (and I) would say that there’s nothing in the signings that would indicate that this is happening, and nothing that couldn’t be explained by the anthropomorphic fallacy and the Clever Hans effect.
So, no, I won’t be moping about tonight. But if you’re mourning the sad fate of Alex, consider the bright side. N’kisi is still alive, and… he’s psychic! Cop that, Alex!
12 September 2007 at 5:01 pm
Don’t be so hard on the parrot Daniel, it’s his owners that are unaware of crazy mathematical-doing horses (or not…), they just don’t understand that he’s just repeating and doesn’t actually know what he’s saying.
He sure can’t/couldn’t make a new sentence from the words he’s learned to create a new idea! Those wacky people! That isn’t a language system!! hehe. Yes well, you already said that.
But, it’s a shame there is one less parrot in the world… I guess not really.
12 September 2007 at 7:16 pm
Why do you hate Pathetic fallacy soo much. I love that name.
13 September 2007 at 2:22 am
I was just watching the morning news (channel 9) and they said that Alex had the intelligence of a 5 year-old.
WHAT?!
13 September 2007 at 5:24 am
I know — the mainstream news outlets tend to pass these things along more or less uncritically. That really is an insult to five-year-olds. I mean, think about that. A five-year-old can tell an extended story, ask questions, make and understand inferences, learn new words even when the explanation is given in words… Alex couldn’t do any of that.
What a pathetic fallacy.
13 September 2007 at 8:37 am
There is an extensive interview with the researcher on Edge if you are interested in the scientific basis of the claims – I doubt it would be entertained on Edge if there weren’t some validity to her method.
13 September 2007 at 10:49 am
I have to start reading Edge more regularly.