"The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for." Ludwig Wittgenstein
In the August Harper's magazine there is an article on Chomsky's universal language concept. For Chomsky language was a hardwired part of the brain. A structure common to all people. This idea never made sense to me as various languages vary so much. But the notion caught on and was taken as gospel.
Anyone who has had anthropology in college knows how fascinating it can be, especially when taught by teachers who actually did field work. Anthropology shows human society as complex and flexible. Enter Dan Everett and the Pirahã, a primitive tribe in Brazil's Amazon basin. The Pirahã’s distinct way of life shaped their language and contradicted Chomsky structured language.
"They spoke only in the present tense. They had virtually no conception of “the future” or “the past,” not even words for “tomorrow” and “yesterday,” just a word for “other day,” which could mean either one. You couldn’t call them Stone Age or Bronze Age or Iron Age or any of the Hard Ages because the Ages were all named after the tools prehistoric people made. The Pirahã made none. They were pre-toolers. They had no conception of making something today that they could use “other day,” meaning tomorrow in this case. As a result, they made no implements of stone or bone or anything else. They made no artifacts at all — with the exception of the bow and arrow and a scraping tool used to make the arrow.*"
Side note. When our granddaughter was born she talked and talked and talked. It amazed us all, she would lie in her crib and rattle on as if in conversation. Was it just the making of sounds she liked so much? I thought then maybe Chomsky was on to something in that language seems so natural and comes so easily to children. Today, she is still a talker, but more a reader.
Book on Pirahã and there life and language. 'Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle' by Daniel L. Everett
A few links below, unfortunately the Harper's piece is behind a paywall.
Recent piece on Chomsky's hardwired brain.
Evidence Rebuts Chomsky's Theory of Language Learning
"In a society in which equality is a fact, not merely a word, words of racial or sexual assault and humiliation will be nonsense syllables." Catharine A. MacKinnon
* Harper's August 2016: 'The Origins of Speech' 'In the beginning was Chomsky' By Tom Wolfe
In the August Harper's magazine there is an article on Chomsky's universal language concept. For Chomsky language was a hardwired part of the brain. A structure common to all people. This idea never made sense to me as various languages vary so much. But the notion caught on and was taken as gospel.
Anyone who has had anthropology in college knows how fascinating it can be, especially when taught by teachers who actually did field work. Anthropology shows human society as complex and flexible. Enter Dan Everett and the Pirahã, a primitive tribe in Brazil's Amazon basin. The Pirahã’s distinct way of life shaped their language and contradicted Chomsky structured language.
"They spoke only in the present tense. They had virtually no conception of “the future” or “the past,” not even words for “tomorrow” and “yesterday,” just a word for “other day,” which could mean either one. You couldn’t call them Stone Age or Bronze Age or Iron Age or any of the Hard Ages because the Ages were all named after the tools prehistoric people made. The Pirahã made none. They were pre-toolers. They had no conception of making something today that they could use “other day,” meaning tomorrow in this case. As a result, they made no implements of stone or bone or anything else. They made no artifacts at all — with the exception of the bow and arrow and a scraping tool used to make the arrow.*"
Side note. When our granddaughter was born she talked and talked and talked. It amazed us all, she would lie in her crib and rattle on as if in conversation. Was it just the making of sounds she liked so much? I thought then maybe Chomsky was on to something in that language seems so natural and comes so easily to children. Today, she is still a talker, but more a reader.
Book on Pirahã and there life and language. 'Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle' by Daniel L. Everett
A few links below, unfortunately the Harper's piece is behind a paywall.
Recent piece on Chomsky's hardwired brain.
Evidence Rebuts Chomsky's Theory of Language Learning
"In a society in which equality is a fact, not merely a word, words of racial or sexual assault and humiliation will be nonsense syllables." Catharine A. MacKinnon
* Harper's August 2016: 'The Origins of Speech' 'In the beginning was Chomsky' By Tom Wolfe
