The_Dunedan

Nevermind. I retract my above advice, since you apparently lack either the patience or the necessary skills to read through a single paragraph, let alone those needed to digest even simple anthropological or primatological data and research methods. Please go back and, very slowly, re-read that part about construction and deconstruction of sentences, and providing impromptu definitions. This is not repetition, this is cogent language by any definition recognized in the linguistic or philological fields (ie by people who do this stuff for a living). Unlike parrots, these Great Apes are capable of asking for things, people, and pets by name, and will reject anything other than the person, item, or pet requested, repeating their initial request until the desired item/person/pet is brought to them. Likewise they have been observed asking questions and further probing the answers they are given. Kanzi has been known to carry on remarkably detailed conversations regarding his surroundings and favorite foods, conversations which -he- initiates with his handlers. Koko the Gorilla was known to do the same, and was able to clearly articulate concepts of death and mortality after the death of her first kitten, "All Ball," an event documented in print and on film by the National Geographic Society.

You are quite correct about the difference between repetition and understanding. It appears, however, that you haven't the faintest clue what that difference -is-. As usual, you are talking out of your arse.