Sorry for this mistake. It was supposed to be an internal mail to a Danish
linguistic specialist.
Søren
Fra: Søren Brier [mailto:[email protected]]
Sendt: 4. juni 2014 17:12
Til: [email protected]
Emne: [PEIRCE-L] Japan?
Hej Per
Jeg fik slet ikke hørt hvordan Japan rejsen gik? Jeg håber at være rask nok til
at komme tirsdag. Tillykke med at så mange har meldt sig til.
Er det her rigtig, som jeg samlede op på Peirce-listen?
It's apparently true that "A child absolutely left on its own will never have
language beyond Umberto Eco's "Latratus canis". But it's not necessarily true
that "It is someone already knowledgeable in communicative human language that
must teach them." Children who interact mainly with other children their own
age have been known to develop their own languages 'from scratch' with no
instruction from adults -- languages sufficient to enable them to communicate
(with each other) and reason at a high level. This sometimes happens with twins
in spite of their parents' efforts to teach them the language of the home.
The origin of language is a very deep and still controversial question, but I
think recent research has emphasized the evolutionary continuity between human
mentality (including communication and reasoning) and the mentality of other
animals. One book I'd recommend on this is The Origins of Meaning (Language in
the Light of Evolution) by James R. Hurford (2007) KENDER DU DEN?. It's one of
Stjernfelt's sources in his new book, and it brings together logic,
linguistics, psychology and evolutionary biology in a remarkable way that
strikes me as quite Peircean although he doesn't mention Peirce. (Sorry, folks,
there's that word again ... )
Venlig hilsen
Søren Brier
Professor mso, IBC. CBS
http://cybersemiotics.dk/
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