Chimps'r' not us: they do not use speech or language (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, August 01, 2019, 11:23 (1942 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: The archaeological indications are that this new potential lay fallow for upwards of 100,000 years, until it was activated by a cultural stimulus of some kind. (DAVID’s bold)

dhw: I don’t understand this at all. The purpose of spoken language is communication, which means externalization. What archaeological indications can prove that early H. sapiens did not communicate?

DAVID: Archaeology judges aesthetic evidences of brain uses, and use that evidence to infer when language might have appeared.

dhw: Totally inadequate. Once more, do you really believe that for 100,000 years H. sapiens lived, loved, hunted, protected himself etc. etc. without communicating? And do you really believe that if he did communicate, he did not use the physical means at his disposal?

DAVID: Of course they spoke but as McRone describes in his book, slow and halting at first. I've described all this before.

I’d love to hear his tape recordings. I don’t think even chimps, birds and other organisms communicate slowly and haltingly, but it is safe to assume that the first sapiens did not have the same range of sounds, vocabulary, structures etc. that we have today. Language evolves. My point is that the anatomy would not have remained “fallow” for 100,000 years. All organisms use the relevant existing parts of their anatomy to communicate.

DAVID: The bold strongly points out my position that the brain appears with established complexity and later it is learned to be used.

dhw: I don’t suppose you’d like to give us your theory as to why your God allegedly made the anatomical changes “appear” 100,000 years before they were needed, would you?

DAVID: I have. Provide the instrument and let the organism learn to use it. You can't play a piano unless there is one in your house.

dhw: The proposal I object to here is that the instrument was not used for 100,000 years. How can you learn to play the piano without playing the piano?

DAVID: Playing requires learning to play, so it took time. That is all I am presenting. The instrument was there when sapiens started, and they took time learning to use it. Mechanism first, use second as I have always told you. Obvious.

That does not mean they didn’t use the mechanism for 100,000 years! You keep telling us your God did a dabble, and but it was only later (100,000 years) that H. sapiens learned to use it! What is not obvious is how the mechanism was formed in the first place. I propose that the need for enhanced communication would have caused sapiens’ ancestors to attempt new sounds (just as the need to swim would have caused pre-whales to attempt new movements), and this would have triggered the anatomical changes which would have been used to develop language.