April 27, 2006
Do starlings recognize grammar in songs?
From MSNBC:
Noam Chomsky has endured many attempts to disprove his widely respected theories of language, but never have any of them come from a 3-ounce bird. The European starling, a tiny virtuoso, has the ability to learn and recognize a feature of grammar that has long been thought to be unique to human languages, researchers report in a new study.
Chomsky isn't buying it, however.
A common characteristic of human grammar is inserting words and clauses within a sentence, without limit. For example, "Oedipus ruled Thebes" can become "Oedipus, who killed his father, ruled Thebes" or "Oedipus, who killed his father, whom he met on the road from Delphi, ruled Thebes," ad infinitum. More simply stated, you can insert as many brackets as you want within a sentence as long as there are as many brackets on the right as there are on the left.
More here.
Posted by Azra Raza at 05:29 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Does anyone else think that Chomsky's comments in the article came across as incoherent? I'm sure it's largely a feature of popular pressification, but it seemed entirely unclear what his objections were about.
Posted by: Colin | Apr 27, 2006 1:01:30 PM
fetched” but my dog Holly went down on me yesterday. I was desperate and had no other choice. Now I am in an even bigger mess because my girlfriend Ariana walked in on the dog and I. Her and the dog are now both refusing to talk
Posted by: t | Jan 23, 2010 1:44:16 AM
d Thebes" or "Oedipus, who killed his father, whom he met on the road from Delphi, ruled Thebes," ad infinitum. More simply stated, you can insert as many brackets as you want within
前列腺炎
前列腺
Posted by: tk9988 | Jul 23, 2010 11:21:42 PM
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