Re: [Fwd: [evol-psych] Brain buzz that proves Chinese is har...

--- In Nostratica@yahoogroups.com, "Rob" <magwich78@...> wrote:

> --- In Nostratica@yahoogroups.com, erobert52@... wrote:
>
> > Yes, in languages that have tones, people listen to the tones. So
> what?
> >
> > It's the CONCLUSIONS the evolutionary psychologist school always
> make of
> > their research that are the problem, and then what non-academics
> make of these
> > conclusions. Let's look at what is being implied:
> >
> > "Chinese is harder than English." This is bollocks. Chinese and
> English are
> > roughly equivalent in difficulty, and probably more so than some
> other pairs of
> > languages that could be mentioned. All human languages that are
> transmitted
> > by normal inheritance are roughly equivalent in complexity,

despite

> their
> > diversity.
> >
> > "Tones are something weird and people that have tones, like the
> Chinese,
> > think differently from "us"." This is bollocks. Languages that

have

> tones can lose
> > them and languages that don't have them can acquire them. Look at
> Swedish.
> >
> > "The English language is suitable for imposition on the rest of

the

> world
> > because thicko foreigners with half a brain can cope with it, and
> native speakers
> > of English can be forgiven for not bothering to learn anything
> else". I don't
> > think so.
> >
> > Let's not even bother remarking about pieces of research that

look

> at English
> > and A.N. Other and claim to have discovered something about
> language in
> > general. There are enough linguists doing this without lay people
> like
> > psychologists starting.
> >
> > I stand by what I said. Evolutionary psychologists are obsessed
> with trying
> > to prove there are differences between ethnic groups. Then

racists

> use these
> > "findings" to justify differences in esteem for different ethnic
> groups.
> >
> > Ed.
>
> I don't believe that the article even purports to make such
> conclusions. With all due respect, I think you're reading too much
> into this.

From the article it is difficult to determine how much of the
"Chinese is harder to learn" spin even originated with the
researchers. It seems to me it might be mostly the reporter's spin.
Further I saw nothing to indicate that the researchers were
evolutionary psychologists. The only connection with evolutionary
psychology evident so far as I can tell is that the article was
posted to an EP mailing list.

Regards,
Ned Smith