Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: cq315@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Hank Walker)
Subject: Re: language orgin...
Message-ID: <DFw0ox.5CC@freenet.carleton.ca>
Sender: cq315@freenet3.carleton.ca (Hank Walker)
Reply-To: cq315@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Hank Walker)
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References: <DFKn1t.85E@freenet.carleton.ca> <44fagu$2ad@netsrv2.spss.com> <DFo704.80A@freenet.carleton.ca> <44l7sh$4ef@medici.trl.OZ.AU>
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 19:26:57 GMT
Lines: 40

Regarding the origin of human language and the difficulty we have
in actually figuring out how it all occurred, Jacques Guy
(jbm@newsserver.trl.oz.au) writes:
 
> But short of borrowing Dr Who's phone booth, speculating about
> how or when language arose remains pure speculation.

I agree, and I don't agree.  Yes, it's speculative.  But that 
shouldn't stop linguists from thinking about the subject logically.

Most other disciplines I can think of include some component about
origins.  Geologists form theories about the origin of the Earth in
order to form a backdrop for current geological processes.  Biologists
and biochemists discuss the origin of life, as it may shed light on
life processes as they occur today. Phisicists and Astrophisicists
do more than speculate about the origin of the universe, as energy and
matter behave a certain way because they were formed a certain way.

Sure, linguists have a hard time because of the lack of hard data, and
the lack of models that have great predictive powers, and all the other
stuff the "hard" sciences have.  However, Linguistics as a discipline
remains incomplete as long as there is/are no model(s), however preliminary, 
on the origin of human language.

Biology and evolution will certainly have to be invoked when creating
such models. Though parrots can make certain speech sounds that seem
to "mimic" human speech, it is not the sounds themselves that are impor-
tant, it's how they ever got to be represented in our brains the way
they are.  Chimps can utter the three cardinal vowels [a], [i], and
[u], and they can pronounce labial and velar stops, but they don't 
have language.  Somehow our ancestors abandoned the perfectly viable
and never ambiguous form of primate communication we used to have
and (probably through mutation) acquired an entirely new system.

Linguists, as scientists, have a responsibility not to shy away from
a problem just because they don't see any easy, obvious answer.




