Koko did not talk. She imitated hand signs. Her handlers were gorilla handlers, not linguists. They were willing to accept any combination of hand signs as com

Koko did not talk. She imitated hand signs. Her handlers were gorilla handlers, not linguists. They were willing to accept any combination of hand signs as communication, and they got to decide what was being "communicated". The phenomenon was no different from dog owners who believe their dog understands English.