Comparing the productive vocabularies of grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and young children
Abstract Due to their outstanding ability of vocal imitation, parrots are often kept as pets. Research has shown that they do not just repeat human words. They can use words purposefully to label objects, persons, and animals, and they can even use conversational phrases in appropriate contexts. So...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer
2024-06-01
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| Series: | Animal Cognition |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-024-01883-5 |
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| author | Tereza Roubalová Lucie Jarůšková Kateřina Chládková Jitka Lindová |
| author_facet | Tereza Roubalová Lucie Jarůšková Kateřina Chládková Jitka Lindová |
| author_sort | Tereza Roubalová |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Due to their outstanding ability of vocal imitation, parrots are often kept as pets. Research has shown that they do not just repeat human words. They can use words purposefully to label objects, persons, and animals, and they can even use conversational phrases in appropriate contexts. So far, the structure of pet parrots’ vocabularies and the difference between them and human vocabulary acquisition has been studied only in one individual. This study quantitatively analyses parrot and child vocabularies in a larger sample using a vocabulary coding method suitable for assessing the vocabulary structure in both species. We have explored the composition of word-like sounds produced by 21 grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) kept as pets in Czech- or Slovak-speaking homes, and compared it to the composition of early productive vocabularies of 21 children acquiring Czech (aged 8–18 months), who were matched to the parrots by vocabulary size. The results show that the ‘vocabularies’ of talking grey parrots and children differ: children use significantly more object labels, activity and situation labels, and emotional expressions, while parrots produce significantly more conversational expressions, greetings, and multiword utterances in general. These differences could reflect a strong link between learning spoken words and understanding the underlying concepts, an ability seemingly unique to human children (and absent in parrots), but also different communicative goals of the two species. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-f1955e5ac3e74da3aa0da47be009642e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1435-9456 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-06-01 |
| publisher | Springer |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Animal Cognition |
| spelling | doaj-art-f1955e5ac3e74da3aa0da47be009642e2025-01-26T12:44:23ZengSpringerAnimal Cognition1435-94562024-06-0127111510.1007/s10071-024-01883-5Comparing the productive vocabularies of grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and young childrenTereza Roubalová0Lucie Jarůšková1Kateřina Chládková2Jitka Lindová3Faculty of Humanities, Charles UniversityFaculty of Arts, Charles UniversityFaculty of Arts, Charles UniversityFaculty of Humanities, Charles UniversityAbstract Due to their outstanding ability of vocal imitation, parrots are often kept as pets. Research has shown that they do not just repeat human words. They can use words purposefully to label objects, persons, and animals, and they can even use conversational phrases in appropriate contexts. So far, the structure of pet parrots’ vocabularies and the difference between them and human vocabulary acquisition has been studied only in one individual. This study quantitatively analyses parrot and child vocabularies in a larger sample using a vocabulary coding method suitable for assessing the vocabulary structure in both species. We have explored the composition of word-like sounds produced by 21 grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) kept as pets in Czech- or Slovak-speaking homes, and compared it to the composition of early productive vocabularies of 21 children acquiring Czech (aged 8–18 months), who were matched to the parrots by vocabulary size. The results show that the ‘vocabularies’ of talking grey parrots and children differ: children use significantly more object labels, activity and situation labels, and emotional expressions, while parrots produce significantly more conversational expressions, greetings, and multiword utterances in general. These differences could reflect a strong link between learning spoken words and understanding the underlying concepts, an ability seemingly unique to human children (and absent in parrots), but also different communicative goals of the two species.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-024-01883-5Communicative developmentGrey parrotChildrenVocabularyLanguageCross-species comparison |
| spellingShingle | Tereza Roubalová Lucie Jarůšková Kateřina Chládková Jitka Lindová Comparing the productive vocabularies of grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and young children Animal Cognition Communicative development Grey parrot Children Vocabulary Language Cross-species comparison |
| title | Comparing the productive vocabularies of grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and young children |
| title_full | Comparing the productive vocabularies of grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and young children |
| title_fullStr | Comparing the productive vocabularies of grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and young children |
| title_full_unstemmed | Comparing the productive vocabularies of grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and young children |
| title_short | Comparing the productive vocabularies of grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and young children |
| title_sort | comparing the productive vocabularies of grey parrots psittacus erithacus and young children |
| topic | Communicative development Grey parrot Children Vocabulary Language Cross-species comparison |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-024-01883-5 |
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