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Monkeys can understand the simple rules of grammar but the key element of all human languages is beyond them, a study at Harvard University has shown.
The research with cotton-top tamarins shows they are able to instinctively understand finite state grammar, involving the simple pairing of words.
However, they are not able to follow phrase structure grammar, the complex rules crucial to every human language.
Details of the US research are published in the journal Science.
"The technique that we used is one that's been long-used by people working with human infants," Harvard's Dr Marc Hauser told BBC World Service's Science In Action programme.
"The basic method is that you play [the monkeys] examples of things that... fit the rule that if you have an example from the category A, you will always have, immediately following it, an example from the category B."
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Monkeys can understand the simple rules of grammar but the key element of all human languages is beyond them, a study at Harvard University has shown.
The research with cotton-top tamarins shows they are able to instinctively understand finite state grammar, involving the simple pairing of words.
However, they are not able to follow phrase structure grammar, the complex rules crucial to every human language.
Details of the US research are published in the journal Science.
"The technique that we used is one that's been long-used by people working with human infants," Harvard's Dr Marc Hauser told BBC World Service's Science In Action programme.
"The basic method is that you play [the monkeys] examples of things that... fit the rule that if you have an example from the category A, you will always have, immediately following it, an example from the category B."
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