Re: Book Posted by: "Christian Van Horn" no_mas_films
Mon Nov 26, 2007 7:34 pm (PST) WOW! Not only do you have a talking macaw,
but one who hosts his own
internet website? I can't do that, and english is my first
language! ;-) Seriously, this sounds like a great project and a good
read. Post the web link when you have time. Oh, and keep this whole
talking bird project secret... Gateway and Compaq will want to
outsource their customer support to them. Chris
.............................
In response to Chris's message, the macaw's web site is being upgraded.
Readers will be able to listen to 19 clips of the bird's cognitive speech and
compare what they hear against the transcription provided in the book.
Another Kind of Mind: A Talking Bird Masters English, is the first book
devoted to analyzing a bird's free speech. The macaw is an educated bird rather
than a trained bird. The ancients knew of the phenomenon, but their accounts
have been discredited by contemporary scholars.
Most researchers train an animal and then test the creature to determine what
the animal knows. Sometimes test results are unclear. In investigating a bird
that speaks while alone, I employed techniques similar to those used by child
speech researchers. Investigators frequently do not provide the data being
analyzed for inspection by the reader, but one parrot does. Despite my
interpretation of the transcriptions of the bird's voluntary cognitive speech,
readers are free to determine a different meaning from what I offer if they
think of a better one.
The information presented in the book is organized from a linguistic
point-of-view. Well, the subject is a talking bird. I provide a great number of
citations from the bird's speech and other information that has not been before
reported. The chain of infomation shows that the bird is learning language.
The bird's site has been posted here before, the present NOT-up-to-date site
is www.ParrotSpeech.com There are currently seven speech clips that show that
people are not very good at discerning their own language when spoken by
another creature (other than cliches).
Recordists who wish to purchase the book will receive a reduced price. I plan
to mail initial orders the 2nd or 3rd week in December. Contact me directly by
e-mail.
Happy holidays to all.
Mike
P.S.: Former experience with computer companies shows that their people
cannot speak coherent English, and the macaw is not bilingual.
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