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Did Alex Have Language?
Hudin, Jennifer
2009
Abstract
This paper argues that the utterances made by the renowned talking parrot, Alex, were not
only meaningful and sincere, they counted as a language. Three arguments are considered in
favor of this claim: 1) Alex demonstrated the capacity for recursion, 2) Alex satised the
Davidsonian requirements for a talking entity to have language, and 3) Alex satised the
Searlean requirements for making speech acts. The paper concludes that the pieces of
human language that Alex most readily acquired and those pieces that he lacked might
point out a kind of evolutionary path by which our ancestors acquired the language that we
now speak.
Series
Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics
XI (2009) 1
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Source
Jennifer Hudin, "Did Alex Have Language?", in: Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics, XI (2009) 1, pp. 271-290.
Languages
en
File(s)