Open Mind,
Thanks for making that point - it was something that I had wanted to write, but forgot.
The original disbelief that parrots could understand language was understandable, because a sizeable amount of the brain is devoted to this one task, so how could it be there in other animals totally unused - I mean why would it evolve?
Here are three interesting facts, and my theory as to what might be going on:
1) Parrots can mimic assorted sounds, including speech, but they also seem to be able to be trained to understand some speech.
2) Apes don't have the right throat structures to generate speech.
3) As Dr Clive Wynne points out, it is hard to imagine conscious thought without that inner voice that we all seem to possess - "Hmm, what shall I do next?"
I seriously wonder if consciousness does indeed work with an inner language - each individual creature developing its own private language - and that it is this which is synchronized in humans so that we can all share our thoughts. This would explain why creatures such as parrots have the ability to understand speech and generate replies, and why some chimps can be taught to understand quite a large vocabulary.
David  |