>Marc writes: IMO we have what you could call templates for language in
general, but not for a specific language. IOW Russians have the same
templates as Bushmen, though perhaps there are small differences. If a
second language is more difficult, it's because it's learnt at a later age I
think.
>Gerry here: The reason I used 1 yr. as the age at which an infant could
begin to learn a second language was because I thought that was presented as
the beginning of "language learning" by some folks on the list. How about 6
months? Would the native infant still have the advantage? These edges
certainly become fuzzy, don't they?
>I think that as we us the term "instincts" to describe the aggregate of
behavioral unconditioned reflexes we may us term "culture" to describe the
aggregate of behavioral conditioned reflexes in human societies. Language is
an element of it. Alexander
>Marc: I generally agree with you. We have a lot of instincts, not less than
other mammals. What we tend to learn is the result of what we're confronted
with (our family, school, society...) & of what our brain can learn. IOW we
can't learn anything. There are "empty places" in our brain that can be
filled in, but not everything can placed there. There are grades of
learning. Imprinting is very limited in what can be filled in, eg, in young
animals their mother's face or voice, the nestplace, their father's &
neighbours' song (in birds), the smell of their siblings, etc., or later in
life the features of the partner (in monogamous species) or of the children.
In humans the association areas in the neocortex are enormously expanded, so
that humans can learn a lot more than most if not all nonhuman animals.
>Gerry here: Marc, I agree with you in general and disagree with you about
specifics. That all of us possess a "template" for language in general I
thought was an accepted fact. I would go beyond that point and claim that
the template for the Russian language is a bit more complex than that for
Swahili.
I think all humans have +- the same basic equipment where the specific
language can be filled in --Swahili or Russian or Khoisan or whatever
language.
>I like Alexander's separation of instinct (unconditioned reflexes) and
culture (behavioral instincts). I'm curious about what you mean by "empty
areas in the brain". Are these areas present in all brains or just a few?
Can these areas be filled or do most of them remain empty? Gerry
All brains (animal & human) that can learn have these places to be filled
in. Brains that can learn are designed to learn specific things, eg, the
smell of the river where you were born if you were a salmon. This place can
not remain empty, of course. In the same way (but a lot more complicated)
humans have in their brains places where specific phonemes must be filled
in, probably at a very early age, perhaps less than 1 years old (cf.
babbling period?), etc.
Marc