If a Chimpanzee Could Talk: And Other Reflections on Language Acquistion

by Jerry H. Gill

How is it that chimpanzees can learn to "speak" at a higher level than some so-called wolf children? What happened that day in the pumphouse, when Helen Keller suddenly grasped the meaning of words? And picture this: a father and mother who shun the advice of professionals, who doggedly force their way into the closed world of their autistic son, and who reverse his grim prognosis, revealing him to be gifted. How to explain?

In this...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816516693
• ISBN13: 9780816516698
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Length: 163 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Good discussion of the philosophic issues

This book contains a good surface discussion of the issues. It is a great place to start, but lacks a thorough covering of the scientific data and research one needs to go deeper into the issues. It covers animal language, children raised in severe isolation, Helen Keller, Autism, the Whorfian Hypothesis and more. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, especially the chapter on Raun, the autistic boy, and how his parents refused to give up hope.