Non-human Primates and Language

Presenters: Arnaud Rey

Why language has not developed in other species, notably in the non-human primates that are genetically closest to us. Contrary to the hypotheses invoking anatomical limitations or the absence of recursion, I will defend the idea of limitations in the motor control enabling primates to simply name the objects of our world, a central mechanism for explaining our capacity for abstraction.

Keywords: Animal Communication, Language Evolution, Phonetics, Production, Productivity, Psycholinguistics, Syntax, Lexicon

Presenters

Arnaud Rey

CNRS and University of Marseille

As a psychology researcher at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) in Marseille (France), I work on the mechanisms involved in language perception and production, as well as on implicit statistical learning mechanisms in human and non-human primates.