mordant wit

Based on the work of linguist Noam Chomsky, scientists now believe human language ability also is in large part innate -- flexible until puberty when the ability to absorb languages is great, then much more restricted by rules learned in adulthood.

Humans have long assumed one of the things that separates us from the lower animals is the quality of our minds.
Our view of the capacity of animal minds has been heavily influenced for the past 400 years by Rene Descartes, who argued in part that since animals lack linguistic capability, they lack a mental life. Descartes thought that animals were simply automata made of meat. Even Descartes may not have been convinced completely of his own opinions, since he kept a small dog himself, breed unknown, one Monsieur Grat, of whom he was very fond.