Pool Knowledge To Find The Origins Of Language

New Scientist ^ | 9-26-2006 | John Pickrell

[blam]

Pool knowledge to find the origins of language

19:00 26 September 2006
NewScientist.com news service
John Pickrell

Linguists are calling for an online public database, similar to the human genome project, that would allow researchers to collaboratively share different studies of language impairment.

By gathering together studies of developmental disorders that cause communication impairments – such as autism or Down’s syndrome – they hope to provide new clues about the origins of language.

Such a database might also help treat language disorders or help people learn foreign tongues, they say.

Language is one of the defining characters of our species, but we know virtually nothing about where it came from. "We have a lot of theories, but we don’t have a lot of data," admits NYU's Gary Marcus.

Unique complexity

The biological basis of how people speak, listen and comprehend – and how all of this mental equipment evolved – is largely mysterious. With many psychological abilities, researchers can study animals to gain insights, but this is not possible with language as no animal communication systems are anywhere near as complex as ours.

"In short, we know it's unique to humans and it evolved quickly," says Marcus. We developed the skill after we split from our last common ancestor – shared with chimpanzees – seven million years ago. Nevertheless, he says, language probably evolved as recently as the last few hundred thousand years.

It has been difficult to gather data, but developmental studies could provide new clues, he believes. So-called knockout studies, where mice are genetically modified to lack certain genes, have helped tease out the origin of certain mental abilities and many genetic disorders.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[billorites]

There's a Dan Quayle joke in here somewhere...

[SuzyQue]

Maybe if we pool our knowledge we can find it.

[Raycpa]

I think there already is a public database of language impaired here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com

[kinoxi]

How many millions in grants do they 'need' for this groundbreaking work?

[the final gentleman]

"The biological basis of how people speak, listen and comprehend – and how all of this mental equipment evolved – is largely mysterious. With many psychological abilities, researchers can study animals to gain insights, but this is not possible with language as no animal communication systems are anywhere near as complex as ours."
______________________________________________________

Good God, yall, you all don't seem to get the gist of human communication. As well, you all don't seen to comprehend the temporal reality of
"determinism" -- bless your sweet innocent hearts.

Yet, one day, assuming your shallow flippant heart is still pointed toward the moon , you will rise above your inadequacies and once again you will become a man among men.A creature worthy of being a man who has been to the moon.

I believe this because I am a believer.

Bless your hearts.

[billorites]

"Every once in a while, you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You can't do that. It's gone, gone forever."

[bperiwinkle7]

Here's an idea on the origin of languages......

Gen 11:1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
Gen 11:2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
Gen 11:3 And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
Gen 11:4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth."
Gen 11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
Gen 11:6 And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
Gen 11:7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech."
Gen 11:8 So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
From Genesis, in the Holy Bible.

[nonsporting]

By gathering together studies of developmental disorders that cause communication impairments – such as autism or Down’s syndrome – they hope to provide new clues about the origins of language.

The dumb leading the ... dumb.

[SuzyQue]

Deep end of the pool, obviously.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[RightWhale]

The biological basis of how people speak, listen and comprehend

Aside from biological observations such as serotonin levels, the proposal that there is a biological basis of language already determines the results.

[stands2reason]

Have a problem with science?

[stands2reason]

Not really. When did that supposedly happen?

[Drammach]

There is a Sumerian myth similar to that of the Tower of Babel, called Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, where the two rival gods, Enki and Enlil end up confusing the tongues of all humankind as collateral damage arising from their argument.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Have you ever read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson?

[Junior]

Very good book (though a bit weird in spots). It builds on the Bicameral Mind theory proposed a number of years ago.

[bperiwinkle7]

Some time ago.........perhaps 4,000-5,000 years ago.
According to Bishop Usher.....

[bperiwinkle7]

No, I haven't. Should I?