Posted on 01/29/2006 3:25:28 PM PST by mlc9852
Chapter One: The Human Paradox
An Evolutionary Anomaly
As our species designation--sapiens--suggests, the defining attribute of human beings is an unparalleled cognitive ability. We think differently from all other creatures on earth, and we can share those thoughts with one another in ways that no other species even approaches. In comparison, the rest of our biology is almost incidental. Hundreds of millions of years of evolution have produced hundreds of thousands of species with brains, and tens of thousands with complex behavioral, perceptual, and learning abilities. Only one of these has ever wondered about its place in the world, because only one evolved the ability to do so.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
LOL. Uhhh, maybe it's just dawned on a few people, but there's plenty of people that have known this as surely as the rising of the sun for a loooooong time.
You would think it would be obvious. LOL
Very detailed and thought provoking. Thanks.
It is thought-provoking. I never gave much thought to the origin of language and found it very interesting. Glad you enjoyed it, too.
When 10s of thousands of birds in a flock all take off at the same time, don't bump into each other, and arrange themselves neatly, there has to be some sort of communication going on.
ML/NJ
Very interesting... thanks!
I am also curious about this nonhuman language-like communication. It can be considered as highly evolved within its own realm.
Third convolution on the left. This development will atrophy from now on as MP3, iPod, and MTV take over the symbolization function in society.
Interesting ping.
But it isn't even close to human language. We are unique.
Symbols are incredibly powerful in a culture. Consider the effect of the simple symbol of the swastika on an entire nation. Scarey!
But are we that unique? Of course our written symbolic language is unique within our species. But how do we seem to communicate so well with animals like we do? There is something in common.
Some people say we are limited by our language.
Archive?
The sign. Words are signs, but so are photographs, cartoons, myths. There is a science of this stuff.
This isn't a debate on creationism. Suggest you go to this thread to discuss these issues:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1565707/posts?page=1142#1142
OK, I am bored. What do you want to discuss? (Minus any creationism references.)
From The Descent of Man:
"The formation of different languages and of distinct species and the proofs that both have developed through a gradual process are clearly the same."
Almost the same: there's nothing like convergence in linguistics. IE, there is no external force driving language change, it's all inherited change.
I don't have the book in front of me (so I'm paraphrasing), but Merritt Ruhlen in The Origin of Language : Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue uses a biological concept, "out-group comparison", in his logic. He says there are [a few] thousand species of mammal, all but six (?) (platypus and various echidnas) give live birth. Did Proto-Mammal lay eggs or have live birth? All biologists agree that Proto-Mammal laid eggs, because, 1) some mammals do, and 2) their closest non-mammal relatives, the reptiles, all do.
He employs this logic to argue that if a word is found in, say, Finnish and Samoyed, but no where else in Finno-Ugric, then, if it's also found in Yukaghir, (and isn't a loanword), it was part of the proto-Finnno-Ugric language, even thought it's not in Hungarian or Mansi, etc.
Ruhlen is arguing for the monogeneisis of language; in another book, On the Origin of Languages: Studies in Linguistic Taxonomy (BTW, much more technical), he gives a list of 20-some words that seem to be widespread throughout the world's languages.
The most famous example is "tik" meaning "finger"; it's the root behind "digit", "decimal", and perhaps "toe"; it's found in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
I just googled an interesting discussion of this: Babel and the Ancient Single Language of the Human Race" by G. R. Morton, as in Morton's Demon!
Ping to PH, VR and Junior; Check Glenn Morton's home page. All I've seen previously is his "demon" essay.
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