Gary M,
The short story on this is that there is no specialized “language module” in the brain; the evolution of language simply took cultural advantage of inherited brain structures that all primates have to some degree. The classic work on this is Terrence Deacon, The Symbolic Species, but what I just wrote is a condensed summary of many sources. By the way it’s not only the primate brain that seems to have the makings of linguistic behavior; some cetaceans and even some birds do more language-like things than some primates do. See Pepperberg’s work with Alex the parrot. Sheer structural complexity is not the main factor. Controversies still rage on why other animals haven’t developed language to the level that humans have. gary f. From: Gary Moore [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 4-Jun-14 3:20 PM To: Gary Fuhrman; Peirce List Subject: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Realworld solutions to realworld problems Thank you! That was greatly illuminating! You are right about there being something necessarily hard-wired into the brain. The question, then, is that incipient urge toward language must have [?] developed millions of years to some degree before even homo habilis since it is a structure of great complexity - or am I mistaken about that? Could it be a relatively simple structure like symbol recognition simply compounded by greater associations of experience, especially if parebting is developing to a 'higher and higher' level? Is it then incipient in all animals or certain kinds of animals especially dogs?
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