Kanzi: A new beginning

Ape language research has been marked by constantly shifting demands made b y those who feel that only human beings can acquire language. Kako (1999) c ontinues in this tradition, but his paper marks a significant shift. For Ka ko concedes that Kanzi possesses rudimentary syntactic skills; but he quest ions whether Kanzi possesses morphosyntax. Rather than searching, yet again , for some linguistic element that Kanzi has not mastered, we feel it would be more productive, for reasons we explore, to focus now on what exactly K anzi can do and how this came about.