Origins Of Language

English School

Introduction

In this work we will going to see what events transpired that have allowed humans to speak, while animals remain silent. If we are to believe the evolutionary teaching currently taking place in colleges and universities around the world, speech evolved as a natural process over time. Yet no one is quite sure how, and there are no known animals that are in atransition phase from non-speaking to speaking. In fact, in the Atlas of Languages, this remarkable admission can be found: ‘No language less community has ever been found’.
In fact, the origin of speech and language (along with the development of sex and reproduction) remains one of the most significant hurdles in evolutionary theory, even in the twenty-first century. In an effort “make theproblem go away,” some evolutionists have chosen not to even address the problem. The evidence conclusively implies that humans were created with the unique ability to employ speech for communication.

Index

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………2
Index……………………………………………………………………………………………...3
Approaches………………………………………………………………………………………..4
Language originshypothesis……………………………………………………………………...6
Communication, speech, and language…………………………………………………………...8
Cognitive development, and language…………………………………………………………...11
Linguistic Structures……………………………………………………………………………..13
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….14
Recommendations………………………………………………………………………………..15
Annexes………………………………………………………………………………………….16
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………..17

Approaches of the language

Approaches to theorigin of language can be divided according to their underlying assumptions. 'Continuity theories' are based on the idea that language is so complex that one cannot imagine it simply appearing from nothing in its final form: it must have evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems among our primate ancestors. 'Discontinuity theories' are based on the opposite idea — that language is so unique a traitthat it cannot be compared to anything found among non-humans and must therefore have appeared fairly suddenly during the course of human evolution. Another contrast is between theories that see language mostly as an innate faculty that is largely genetically encoded, and those that see it as a system that is mainly cultural — that is, learned through social interaction.
Noam Chomsky is aprominent proponent of discontinuity theory, and on this issue he stands quite isolated among his academic peers. He argues that a single chance mutation occurred in one individual on the order of 100,000 years ago, triggering the 'instantaneous' emergence of the language faculty (a component of the mind-brain) in 'perfect' or 'near-perfect' form. The philosophical argument runs, briefly, as follows.Firstly, from what is known about evolution: any biological change in a species arises by a random genetic change in a single individual, which then spreads throughout its breeding group. Secondly, from a computational perspective on the theory of language: the only change that was needed was the cognitive ability to construct and process recursive data structures in the mind (the so-called propertyof "discrete infinity", which appears to be unique to the human mind). This genetic change, which endowed the human mind with the property of discrete infinity, Chomsky argues, essentially amounts to a jump from being able to count up to N, where N is a fixed number, to being able to count indefinitely (i.e. if N can be constructed then so can N+1). It follows from these assertions that theevolution of the human language faculty is saltation since, as a matter of logical fact, there is no way to gradually transition from a mind capable only of counting up to a fixed number, to a mind capable of counting indefinitely. The picture then, by loose analogy, is that the formation of the language faculty in humans is akin to the formation of a...