MONKEYS COMPREHEND GRAMMAR!
John Fartlington Poopnagle
exam!
Professor A.J. Calhoun proclaims phenomenon a "miracle."
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Science Digest
Monday, July 20, 2009
"Monkeys Recognize Grammar Principle"
RESEARCHERS at Harvard University have evidence that monkeys can
understand the difference between prefixes and suffixes, showing that
animals may have more capacity to learn language than previously
thought.
In a study released this month in Biology Letters journal, Ansgar D.
Endress and his colleagues tested 14 cotton-top tamarins to see if
they could learn the linguistic rule that adds "-ed" to create the
past tense, as in transforming "kick" to "kicked."
The scientists used the nonsense syllable "shoy" as a base, then they
added prefixes and suffixes such as "ba, pu, di, ki, lu, ro and mo"
and played the monkeys recordings of humans saying these "words." One
group became familiar with prefixes, such as "ba-shoy" and "mo-shoy,"
and the other group heard suffixes, such as "shoy-ba" and "shoy-mo."
On testing day, the researchers played a recording of words, half of
which stuck to the monkey's familiarization pattern and half that
violated it -- similar to saying "kicked" and "edkick." When the
tamarin turned his head at least 60 degrees toward the speaker, the
researchers counted this as a response. The human equivalent would be
if someone said, "The girl edkick the ball," and the listener cocked
his head as if to say, "What?" The tamarins responded 52 percent of
the time after hearing a violation, compared with 37 percent for
correct grammar.
"One of the big mysteries is why we speak and other animals don't,"
Endress said. He said he "would be surprised" if the ability to
understand prefixes and suffixes were limited to humans and primates.
-- Rachel Saslow
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/19/AR2009071901827.html
ne...@millions.com
I don't think anyone should be teaching monkeys anything. There are
enough in the US Congress, and anyone can see what the more recent
results are.
Fred Oinka
Who done learned 'em how to talk it?
El Perverto
Harvard grad school of business.
Now, does that speak well of Harvard, Dumbya, or the chimp?
Kyle Schwitters
Threatens To Get Cornel West Involved!
--------------------------
"Harvard Professor Arrested At Home"
"Police Report Says Henry Gates Called Officers Racist"
By Krissah Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
HENRY LOUIS GATES JR., one of the nation's most prominent African
American scholars, was arrested last week at his home near Harvard
University after trying to force open the locked front door.
According to a report by the police department in Cambridge, Mass.,
Gates accused police officers at the scene of being racist and said
repeatedly, "This is what happens to black men in America." The
incident was first reported by the Harvard Crimson.
Gates, the director of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and
African American Studies, has been away from his home much of the
summer while working on a documentary called "Faces of America," said
Charles Ogletree, a Harvard law professor and friend of Gates who is
working as his lawyer. Gates returned from China last week and had
trouble opening the front door with his key.
Gates, 58, was arrested Thursday by police looking into a possible
break-in for disorderly conduct "after exhibiting loud and tumultuous
behavior" at his home, according to the police report. Officers said
they tried to calm down Gates, who responded, "You don't know who
you're messing with," according to the police report.
Ogletree said Gates was ordered to step out of his home. He refused
and was followed inside by a police officer. After showing the officer
his driver's license, which includes his address, Ogletree said Gates
asked: "Why are you doing this? Is it because I'm a black man and
you're a white officer? I don't understand why you don't believe this
is my house." Ogletree said Gates was then arrested and charged with
disorderly conduct and racial harassment.
Gates did not return calls to his office Monday, and the police
department would provide no further details on the arrest. He was
released four hours later, and arraignment has been scheduled for Aug.
26, but Ogletree said they hope to resolve the case sooner.
Gates is resting on Martha's Vineyard, according to Ogletree, and will
soon resume traveling. He is scheduled to interview cellist Yo-Yo Ma,
whose genealogy he was researching in China.
Gates, is a founder of the Root (http://www.theroot.com), a Web site
owned by The Washington Post Co. He is also host and co-producer of
"African American Lives," a Public Broadcasting Service show in which
he uses genealogical resources and DNA testing to trace the family
lineages of prominent black Americans. He was named a MacArthur Fellow
in 1981 and was among Time magazine's "25 Most Influential Americans"
in 1997.
Gates's arrest points to broader racial disparities in the criminal
justice system, said Ryan S. King, a policy analyst at the Sentencing
Project, a think tank that researches incarceration rates.
"If you look at every stage of the criminal justice system from
initial police contact all the way through sentencing and
incarceration, you see that African Americans are disproportionately
impacted by each stage," King said. "What we ultimately see as
disparate incarceration rates are contributed to by all of these
factors."
As news of the arrest spread Monday from Harvard into broader academic
circles, one professor who follows Gates's work said the arrest was
both "not surprising" and "disheartening."
"I felt bad that I would hear about something like this happening,
especially to someone as recognizable and distinguished as [Gates],
but in the academy we still sometimes encounter that. I've been in
situations where I encounter people who don't believe I'm a college
professor," said Jelani Cobb, an associate professor of history at
Spelman College in Atlanta. "We have obvious signs of progress, but
we're not there."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/20/AR2009072001358.html
ne...@millions.com
No, Harvard!