Document Type

Thesis

Date of Degree Completion

Spring 2015

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Primate Behavior

Committee Chair

Mary Lee Jensvold

Second Committee Member

Ralf Greenwald

Third Committee Member

Joseph Lorenz

Abstract

Chimpanzees that use signs of American Sign Language (ASL) sign to friends and strangers, both human and nonhuman. Transcripts of signed conversations between four chimpanzees and 43 human interlocutors within a 4 min trial were analyzed for their style including lexical diversity. Twenty-two of the interlocutors were familiar to the chimpanzees, 21 were strangers, and all had basic or more know ledge of ASL. Overall, familiar signers used more vocabulary and had more conversations than unfamiliar signers. The two groups had 53 vocabulary signs in common. Only one chimpanzee, Loulis, participated in enough trials and in both conditions to elicit comparisons of responses. Loulis used a greater number of signs in trial with unfamiliar signers than familiar signers. Loulis' total number of utterances and the total number of utterances of signers in both conditions were positively correlated. Loulis used the same lexicon for both conditions; however, he repeated himself more with strangers than familiars.

Comments

This thesis has been digitized and made available as part of the University’s ongoing preservation and access initiatives. Copyright is retained by the original author. The University has made a good faith effort to review this work for copyright and privacy concerns prior to digitization. If you are the author or a rights holder and have questions, concerns or wish to request removal, please contact ScholarWorks@cwu.edu.

Download

Share

COinS