Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: cl596@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Petar Lazic)
Subject: Re: language orgin...
Message-ID: <DFo704.80A@freenet.carleton.ca>
Sender: cl596@freenet2.carleton.ca (Petar Lazic)
Reply-To: cl596@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Petar Lazic)
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
References: <DFKn1t.85E@freenet.carleton.ca> <44fagu$2ad@netsrv2.spss.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 14:02:27 GMT
Lines: 37


Mark Rosenfelder (markrose@spss.com) writes:
> 
> Well, it's awfully hard to put a bunch of hominids on an empty continent
> and watch how language develops.  I suspect the feeling of taboo derives
> from the absence of testable facts, plus the encouragement that this very
> scarcity gives to quack speculation.  
> 
I agree that investigations into language origin have to be fairly
speculative, but there is a lot that you can do with what little hard 
evidence there is. You can look at how we came by the crucial physical
structures necessary for language ie descended larynx, control of 
breathing, mouth shape etc. Some of these are necessary pre-conditions
to language and some evolved as a result of language. Also, things like
a descended larynx are so costly (in terms of choking, S.I.D.S etc) that 
it is hard to see how they would have evolved in the first place.


> What don't you like about Bickerton?  Not that I agree with him; I'd just
> like to know what specifically you found lacking in his understanding of
> evolutionary biology.  I found the crucial parts of his story to depend
> on a bit too much handwaving-- e.g. the idea that the change from syntaxless
> pidgin-talk to full fledged language might have involved a single mutation.

It's been a while since I read his books, but one thing that I recall
specifically was that he posited that language did not develop from the 
pre-existing (although very limited) vocal communication that those
hominids must have had. Evolution doesn't work that way. It loves to build
on old structures. If something can be reused or adapted for a new purpose,
it will be, as long as there is an evolutionary pressure for the new
structure. 
\
p
--
Petar Lazic				"Hell is other people."
cl596@freenet.carleton.ca			J.P. Sartre

