In 1979, another study was begun by H.S. Terrace, this time with a chimpanzee named Nim. Nim was taught ASL by an experienced teacher. After 4 years, Nim had learned approximately 125 signs. He was able to combine these signs into 2 or 3 word utterances. It was found, however, that when he strung together more than two words, the additional words didn't add to the sentence but were simply repetitions. Terrace concluded that only 12% of Nim's signing was spontanious. Almost 80% of his signing was in response prompting by his trainers and 40% was simply repetition of signs made by his trainers. (1)
 
 
 

Ape Communication Studies Main Chimpanzee page Animal Communication Page

(1) An Introduction to Language pg. 403