Nevertheless,
The key
difference between any of the so-called animal languages and human languages is that humans are able to generate phrases without having heard that exact phrase before. A parrot may memorize a specific phrase, but only a human can use a word that he/she has just heard in an entirely different grammatical structure, such as a question or a possessive. For example, when a parrot learns the phrase "good boy," it cannot immediately generate the phrase "good girl" or "good cracker." A human child, provided that he/she knows the meaning of the words "girl" and "cracker" can, even though he/she might not have heard that phrase used before. Thus, the parrot does not utilize language as a human does, but merely mimics it. Such mimicry can be associated with a certain stimulus or reward, but until a parrot can generate new phrases by using its existing vocabulary, I do not think that the parrot can be considered as having understood the meaning of the word. I think the term association might be a better word for what parrots do, as linguistic abilities of parrots are radically different than ours.
Slashdot Mirror
Nevertheless, The key difference between any of the so-called animal languages and human languages is that humans are able to generate phrases without having heard that exact phrase before. A parrot may memorize a specific phrase, but only a human can use a word that he/she has just heard in an entirely different grammatical structure, such as a question or a possessive. For example, when a parrot learns the phrase "good boy," it cannot immediately generate the phrase "good girl" or "good cracker." A human child, provided that he/she knows the meaning of the words "girl" and "cracker" can, even though he/she might not have heard that phrase used before. Thus, the parrot does not utilize language as a human does, but merely mimics it. Such mimicry can be associated with a certain stimulus or reward, but until a parrot can generate new phrases by using its existing vocabulary, I do not think that the parrot can be considered as having understood the meaning of the word. I think the term association might be a better word for what parrots do, as linguistic abilities of parrots are radically different than ours.