Re: John has been assimilated

As a rank amateur, I am always a bit hesitant to voice my ideas on this forum, but here goes: ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ........................... About 25 years ago, I wrote a college paper (which I can't put my hands on) on the subject of when language originated. I took a somewhat different tack: ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ...................................... The literature on early childhood development indicates that infants/toddlers have an innate linguistic ability which, through interaction with speakers in child's environment, leads to the rapid development of language. This native tendency is found in deaf infants who will articulate many sounds of speech in the early months of life. Over time, this ability diminishes due to the lack of reinforcing feedback. This innate ability is also reflected in the construction of our brains. The left temporal regions of the brain (e.g., Broca's area, Wierneke's (sp?) area, etc.) are unique to our species. When comparing humans to chimpanzees, researchers have found that chimps have sufficient intellect to manipulate linguistic symbols, including visual keys and sign language. The difference between chimp and human is not the cognitive ability to use symbols; it's the accretion of new cortical areas in the left temporal lobe, as well as neurological changes to allow very fine motor activity in the mouth, tongue and throat. ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ...................................... We are "hard-wired" to acquire language. Given the evidence for this innate ability (what Noam Chomsky called "Language Acquisition Device), it is unlikely that language arose as a cultural artifact in H. Sapiens history; it was probably already present when our species emerged. ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ...................................... So, if we already had the physiological traits necessary for language, when and how did it develop? ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ...................................... One approach is to examine brain cases of H. Erectus, H. Habilis, specimens to look for evidence of left temporal lobe expansion. (I believe that some work has been done in this regard - but can no longer recall the specific findings.) ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ...................................... Another avenue to explore is _behavioral_ evidence of language acquisition. Language is a key component of cognitive development. Piaget and later researchers observed how children use language to link a sequence of activities to achieve a desired result. A child building with blocks says things like, "First I put this here; then I can put that one there . . . ". Language appears to be a helpful, perhaps necessary, component for manipulative activities which require a sequence of steps. It appears that language serves to bridge the gap between now and the future. Perhaps it is difficult for us to "hold" the idea of a future outcome without symbols to mediate. ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ...................................... This is supported by the fact that deaf children who are pre-linguistic have great difficulty accomplishing developmental cognitive tasks, such as building a complex block structure. Once they acquire a language, such as sign language, they are often able to catch up to the cognitive developmental phase of their peers. ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ...................................... If a symbolic system is necessary to complete a complex sequence of manipulations, early hominid tools may reveal something about the linguistic abilities of our predecessors. Refinements in hominid tool-making may parallel and reflect growing linguistic ability. Futhermore, it may be possible to triangulate the evidence from two sources: the morphological changes in hominid brain cases, AND the develpment of more complex tools which would have required language. ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ...................................... If this hypothesis is true, then the evolution of language may have been gradual, growing in sophistication as certain areas of the brain evolved. ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ....................................................................... ..... ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------- As for pre-sapiens human species having language - sure, but probably not language in the "modern" sense. This, I think, was invented very approximately 50,000 years ago. Before this time cultural change was glacially slow (the Acheulean culture lasted more than 1,000,000 years!)and there is little if any evidence of art, personal adornment, use of symbols or religion, either for H. sapiens and other human species. .............................................. ............................................ Tommy, H.sapiens was in Australia and making art 60,000 years ago, a feat only possible with libguistic skills. Whilst Acheulian had lasted 1 million years and Mousterian had lasted at least 150,000, it seems that there was a greater variety in non-lithic cultures than the uniformity that appears in Stone tools. ....................................................................... ................... All this changes rather abruptly about midway through the last glaciation, and only for H. sapiens. Up to this time H. sapiens does not seem to have been competitively superior to neandertalers (who displaced sapiens in the Near East when climate grew colder), but by 30,000 BP neandertalers were extinct, also cultural change became at least an order of magnitude faster (most late Paleolithic cultures only last a few thousand years). Many archaeologists think that this "change of tempo" marks the invention of fully modern language and I must say it seems very likely. ....................................................................... ................... Language may have been invented once or several times in different places, e. g. in Greater Australia which was populated by 40,000 BP at the latest, and which has always been rather isolated from the rest of the World. There is really no way of telling, though it might conceivably be possible in the future to trace the spread of Upper Paleolithic cultures in enough detail to see if it happened from one or several centra.