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Vocal Learning in Nonhuman Primates: Importance of Vocal Contexts

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The Origins of Language

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Abstract

Humans acquire languages indeed naturally. Although newborn infants can not speak anything, they acquire normal speech by hearing adults’ conversations without some explicit training. Human infants learn a language which they are exposed to in childhood. Although it is impossible for adults to acquire a new language in the same level of the language which was learned in childhood, adults learn some new languages with considerable efforts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, 41 Kanrin, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506

    Chieko Yamaguchi

  2. Department of Animal Models for Human Disease, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1 Ogawa-Higashi, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187-8502, Japan

    Chieko Yamaguchi & Akihiro Izumi

Authors
  1. Chieko Yamaguchi
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  2. Akihiro Izumi
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, 41 Kanrin, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan

    Nobuo Masataka (Professor) (Professor)

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Yamaguchi, C., Izumi, A. (2008). Vocal Learning in Nonhuman Primates: Importance of Vocal Contexts. In: Masataka, N. (eds) The Origins of Language. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-79102-7_6

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