----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 1:27
AM
Subject: [nostratic] The riddle of Babel:
Language's missing link
The riddle of Babel: Language's missing link
The Times
of India, December 19,
2003
Nadeshda
LUCKNOW : Was the Biblical Tower of Babel merely a
metaphorical
representation of a linguistic chaos unleashed by the lack of
commonality?
Or was it a pointer to the missing link in human interaction?
The detractors
and supporters of this position are equally vocal. There are
about 6,700
languages spoken in the world today, while a few centuries
back, there were
close to
10,000.
Is the Tower tottering? Or are the world's peoples understanding
each other
better? Professor Sushant Mishra, lecturer at the Central
Institute of
English and Foreign Languages, Lucknow , explains that there is
a definite
common strain between all languages. "We have exclusive responses
to all
physical and emotional needs, but needs across the world essentially
remain
the same," he explains. For example: "In China we have a different
word for
rice as compared to the equivalent word in Hindi. But we are
essentially
asking for the same commodity, hence the commonality in
a
sense."
Christian Matthiessen, professor at Macquarie University ,
Sydney , has a
different take. "Human language and humans have co-evolved,
therefore human
language is as complex as the human brain. It is very
difficult to find a
commonality between something as complex as this,"
Matthiessen posits. He
says that of the 6,700 languages spoken today, only
about 300-400 have a
reasonable description (as opposed to various dialects
of one language),
while the rest are unaccounted. This makes it even more
complicated when
one searches for a
commonality.
But at a more abstract level, there does exist a link between
all languages
stresses Professor MAK Halliday from the University of Sydney,
Australia.
"All languages have the same basic architecture and also a
similar
functional structure." Since every language is a theory of
human
experience, "the commonality lies in the way we interpret reality,"
he
says.
On the other hand, Matthiessen believes that for any particular
experience,
three kinds of interpretations are possible. "We interpret and
reciprocate
our experience of the world; on the interpersonal level, we
enact our
social roles; and finally, we understand the text in the context
that it
was spoken in," he
explains.
And then there are linguists who swear allegiance to the
'Chomskian' school
of thought that posits an underlying commonality between
languages and
between the basic thought patterns of humans. Also, according
to Professor
Robin Fawcett, professor of linguistics at the Cardiff
University , Wales ,
"The conceptual systems into which we interpret our
languages, have
sufficient enough in common to enable us to recognise
approximate
equivalences." This, incidentally, is the reason why we are able
to perform
the rather complex task of translating text from one language to
another,
Fawcett points out. And the riddle remains.
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