Lana the chimp

The reading passage introduces evidence from a study conducted in the university of Georgia that tried to prove primates are able to use language just as human children do. However, the speaker in the lecture casts doubt on the claims made in the article. He mentions that the ability of animals to talk is yet to be fully proven. First and foremost, the author assumes that Lana, the female chimpanzee that was the focus of the project, was capable of utilizing a keyboard with symbols of artificial language to communicate with researchers. According to the article, she successfully pressed up to seven keys in succession to express her thoughts. Nevertheless, the lecturer offsets this argument by declaring that the communications were extremely limited with endless repetitions of words. The speaker further illustrates that the chimpanzee struggled to learn just one language, whereas a human child has the capacity to learn multiple language at the same time. Secondly, the writer maintains that Lana succeeded in forming the basis of language by being able to construct combination of words and distinguish between nouns and adjectives. Nonetheless, the lecturer indicates that the structures were so basic with regard to grammar and mostly comprised of few short sentences with no complex grammar. The excerpt lastly contends that Lana answered the scientists' questions using the designed keyboard, meaning that she understood what was being asked and was able to provide logical responses. In contrast, the professor challenges this idea. He holds that the animal did not reply in speaking but instead, used a keyboard. Furthermore, the lecturer explains that she did not pose any questions to the researchers and the whole interaction was passive from the animal's side since she did not seek to ask any questions like a human kid would do. Plus, the animals did not use the invented language to communicate with each other.