Koko the Gorilla has passed away.
Koko was claimed to have learned words through modified sign language, and even spoken English. But how do these claims stack up? What was she able to do, and what does this teach us about language?
We’re looking at Koko’s contribution to linguistics, on this episode of Talk the Talk.
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Daniel and Rewi chat ahead of the show. A brief intro to the issues surrounding ape language projects.
Also at https://www.patreon.com/posts/19700717
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Show notes
How do horses read human emotional cues?
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-06/hu-hdh061918.php
Communicative mind-reading in preverbal infants
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-27804-4
Koko The Gorilla Dies; Redrew The Lines Of Animal-Human Communication
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/21/622160278/koko-the-gorilla-dies-redrew-the-lines-of-animal-human-communication
Koko the gorilla is gone, but she left a legacy
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/koko-gorilla-gone-she-left-legacy
What Do Talking Apes Really Tell Us? The strange, disturbing world of Koko the gorilla and Kanzi the bonobo.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/08/koko_kanzi_and_ape_language_research_criticism_of_working_conditions_and.html
Koko’s First Interspecies Web Chat: Transcript (1998)
https://web.archive.org/web/20121018075446/http://www.koko.org/world/talk_aol.html
Note: This page originally appeared on koko.org, but it now seems to have been deleted.
Koko On AOL, 11/29/2000
https://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/monkeywire/2000-December/000028.html
Has Koko the Gorilla really learned to talk?
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150820-can-this-gorilla-talk
Lecture by Professor Robert Sapolsky of Stanford
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIOQgY1tqrU
koko.org: How do you respond to those who dispute claims that Koko and other gorillas can talk?
http://www.koko.org/faqs-1#Q2
A Conversation With Koko the Gorilla
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/koko-the-talking-gorilla-sign-language-francine-patterson/402307/
Why Koko the Gorilla Mattered
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/06/gorillas-koko-sign-language-culture-animals/
Other Ape Language Projects
https://www.koko.org/other-ape-language-projects
The Battle Over a Controversial Method for Autism Communication
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/07/a-controversial-method-for-autism-communication/491810/
Facilitated Communication Is a Cult That Won’t Die
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2015/11/facilitated_communication_pseudoscience_harms_people_with_disabilities.html
Six Talking Apes
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/six-talking-apes-48085302/
The Infant Loulis Learns Signs from Cross-Fostered Chimpanzees (PDF)
http://faculty.uncfsu.edu/tvancantfort/reprints/Loulis/Infant%20Loulis%202.pdf
John McWhorter: ‘Tender’ smells of baby powder and strained pears, but not when it’s masking a cruel detention system
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/20/opinions/tender-trump-euphemisms-are-ineptly-orwellian-mcwhorter-opinion/index.html
Weekly Word Watch: tender age shelter, gaming disorder, and donug
https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2018/06/22/weekly-word-watch-tender-age-shelter-gaming-disorder-donug/
‘Womp Womp’: Corey Lewandowski Mocks Child With Down Syndrome Separated From Mother
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/business/media/corey-lewandowski-womp-womp-down-syndrome.html
CNN’s Cuomo confronts Lewandowski over ‘womp womp’ remark
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/393589-cnn-anchor-confronts-lewandowski-over-comment-about-immigrant-girl-with-down
The Price is Right Losing Horn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YrIj4I7ecg
Sad Trombone
sadtrombone.com
Trump ramps up rhetoric: Dems want ‘illegal immigrants’ to ‘infest our country’
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/19/politics/trump-illegal-immigrants-infest/index.html
Trump Says Democrats Want Immigrants to ‘Infest’ the U.S.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/trump-immigrants-infest/563159/
What is ‘mince’? Supermarkets and farmers clash over Funky Fields plant product
http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-06-16/meaning-of-mince-sparks-clash-between-supermarket-and-farmers/9875242
Transcript
We’re working our way back through the archives. If you think we should prioritise a transcript of this episode, let us know!
4 July 2018 at 8:45 am
I’ve been listening to your podcast for several months now and I generally enjoy your content as a linguaphile. However, I was extremely disappointed near the end of this episode.
Let me preface this by saying that I am NOT a Trump supporter. However, much of what was said regarding Trump was utterly false. First, the Time cover mentioned in the podcast was demonstrated to be fake news. The “animals” comment was in regard to MS-13 gang members and not all immigrants. Lastly, the separations were also done under previous administrations. The hosts talked as if this is something that Trump just started to introduce.
I hope that as scholars you will do a thorough job and try to be more objective next time. You do your field no service by bending and twisting the truth to score political points. You also alienate your non-liberal listener base with reckless comments such as were in this podcast.
9 July 2018 at 9:21 am
Hi, Rhys.
Trump uses dehumanising language to describe people. This is wrong. I don’t care if it’s immigrants or gang members. Why not? Because using dehumanising language about gang members who are Mexican results in splash damage against other Mexicans — particularly when Trump has never been careful about distinguishing them.
The White House is trying to get out the rhetorical tweezers. I’m not interested in playing that game with this bunch of liars.
12 July 2018 at 11:36 am
The idea that this is simply a continuation of an Obama-era practice is “preposterous,” said Denise Gilman, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas Law School. “There were occasionally instances where you would find a separated family — maybe like one every six months to a year — and that was usually because there had been some actual individualized concern that there was a trafficking situation or that the parent wasn’t actually the parent.”
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/fact-check-did-obama-administration-separate-families-n884856