Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!rutgers!news.sgi.com!news.mathworks.com!howland.erols.net!netcom.com!petrich
From: petrich@netcom.com (Loren Petrich)
Subject: Re: Invention of Language (Whittet)
Message-ID: <petrichE15G99.59q@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <56oqql$bgq@scream.auckland.ac.nz> <petrichE13ICM.Bot@netcom.com> <56sih6$hma@fridge-nf0.shore.net>
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 03:27:09 GMT
Lines: 22
Sender: petrich@netcom12.netcom.com

In article <56sih6$hma@fridge-nf0.shore.net>,
Steve Whittet <whittet@shore.net> wrote:

	[Washoe the Chimp:]
>She will use as many as four or five of these gestures in a sentence

>Gimme, drink, sweet, please, hurry

>Out, open, please, hurry

>These would seem to each contain at least two clauses
>making them by your definition "complex". Since this was the
>data in 1966, I would presume that the lists have been updated
>somewhat since then.

	That's not what I'd call great linguistic prowess. More like 
stringing words together rather than using any coherent sort of grammar.
-- 
Loren Petrich				Happiness is a fast Macintosh
petrich@netcom.com			And a fast train
My home page: http://www.webcom.com/petrich/home.html
Mirrored at: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/pe/petrich/home.html


