Subject: ape languagethe latest issue of the journal of nih research ( vol 7 , no . 1 jan . 1995 pp . 50-55 ) contain a short review article by pat shipman on human evolution . on the cover , the article be refer to as " fade line between ape and human , " but actually it be title " climb the family tree : what make a hominid a hominid ? " . the discussion on linguistic ability may be of interest to other subscriber to the linguist list . the author discuss kanzus and sue savage - rumbaugh 's 1994 book " kanzus : the ape at the brink of the human mind , " [ john wiley and son , ny ] . accord to savage - rumbaugh , kanzus do have a rudimentary grammar , can use displace referent and arbitrary symbol ( in this case , icon or " lexigram " on a computer ) . s - r think his ability equal that of a 2 year old child . in later section , the work of derek bickerton ( " language and specy , " 1990 [ university of chicago press ] be summarize . bickerton admit that kanzus , other ape and young child use " proto-language , " but not full language because of the lack if grammatical element . most of the rest of the section on language be devote to broca 's area and cortical specialization . - - john