¿Morfología en monos? Discusión crítica de un supuesto proceso de afijación en monos en estado salvaje

  1. Longa, Víctor M. 1
  2. López Rivera, Juan J 1
  1. 1 Área de Lingüística General, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, España.
Revista:
Ludus vitalis: revista de filosofía de las ciencias de la vida = journal of philosophy of life sciences = revue de philosophie des sciences de la vie

ISSN: 1133-5165

Ano de publicación: 2012

Volume: 20

Número: 38

Páxinas: 161-191

Tipo: Artigo

Outras publicacións en: Ludus vitalis: revista de filosofía de las ciencias de la vida = journal of philosophy of life sciences = revue de philosophie des sciences de la vie

Resumo

Monkey’s morphology? A critical appraisal on a supposed morphology-like behavior.According to many ethologists, the vast majority of linguistic properties and features are not uniquely human, but do exist in nonhuman animals as well. Very recently, Ouattara, et al. (2009) have broadened the range of language properties which are supposedly shared by nonhuman organisms: they have claimed that a species of Old World monkeys is endowed with a morphology-like behavior. Our paper has two main objectives: firstly, we aim at critically discussing Ouattara’s claim by showing that the behavior shown by Campbell monkeys has nothing to do with true morphology, if morphology is rigorously considered. Secondly, and more generally, we critically analyze the strategy of attributing linguistic behaviors to animals, which has pervaded ethological studies.

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