or gibbons, or gorillas,

长臂猿或是大猩猩学习
a human language like ASL

诸如美国手语这样的人类语言
are misguided.

其实是在缘木求鱼
It would be as if a team of monkeys

这就像一群猴子
kidnapped a human child

绑架了一个人类小孩
and tried to train him how to hoot like a monkey.

并试图训练他模仿猴子的叫声一样
It might be enjoyable

也许看上去挺好玩
but it does not seem to give us any rich insights.

但似乎并没给我们带来任何有价值的发现
What I think is a lot more interesting

我认为更具意义的是
is the study of these animal communication systems in the wild.

对野生动物交流系统的研究
There's a linguistics of human language

人类语言学这门学科
that has delineated the principles that underlie all human languages.

将构成人类语言的基础原则勾画了出来