Chomsky's book & human language (Humans)

by dhw, Sunday, April 03, 2016, 13:51 (3155 days ago) @ David Turell

Quote found by dhw: " Moreover, there is clear evidence of interbreeding between Neanderthals and humans. The implication is obvious: both species must have had language. That being the case, this pushes the origins of spoken language back much further, perhaps even to half a million years ago."-DAVID: Many assumptions here. Was interbreeding rape or consensual? Humans are only 200,000 years old, not a half million. And yes, I'm sure Neanderthals had speech that goes back earlier, but it may have been much more rudimentary than ours.
-The article you have posted on “Convoluted human evolution” suggests interbreeding on a very large scale. Ah well, mass rape if you like. I'm also sure that our own language has evolved on a huge scale, even since biblical times. Human language began as sounds, and many animals also communicate by sound. I have no doubt that gibbon language is “more rudimentary” than, say, Neanderthal language was, but that is evolution for you: from the comparatively simple to diversification and complexification.
 
Dhw: Our language and our range of thought have clearly evolved far beyond theirs, but they have enough for their needs. This is not anthropomorphizing animals. We ARE animals. They got there before us, and we have merely developed what they passed on to us." 
DAVID: My bold of your statement is to simply point out we did not merely develop what they passed on. Animals have simple communications. My dog communicates with me in very simple ways We humans speak and we think with words that carry concepts. We are different in kind and our language makes us that way.-As above. I will happily acknowledge that we and our language as different in kind, just as your dog and its language are different in kind from your cat and its language, and I will happily acknowledge that our language and our intelligence have evolved far beyond theirs - or if you like, far, far, far beyond theirs. That's it, apart from what I wrote earlier, which still stands:-dhw: The researchers are also working on the languages used by rats, whales, dolphins, bats and songbirds. For those of us who believe that we are descended from earlier organisms, this can hardly be surprising. Communication is essential to survival, but clearly it is also used for matters which humans in their arrogance assume are exclusive to themselves, including love, parental guidance, education, and in the case of the gibbons, even a fair division of the domestic chores! -DAVID: By the way, I'm glad you quoted more of the article. We have space problems due to the restrictions of this website as it is built.-As always, I'm immensely grateful for all these articles. With regard to space,we have in fact gradually increased it, but I think a limit is essential, and actually it's good for discipline. I already tend to go on far too long, for which I must apologize!