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Study questions
1. Why is it difficult toagree with Psammetichus that Phrygian must have been the original humanlanguage?
Key: Psammetichus left the infant togrow up among goats. This action caused the infant to imitate the sounds thegoats were making. Psammetichus interpreted this sound as an actual word whichwas in reality just a “be”.
2. What is the basic idea behind the “bow-wow” theory of languageorigin?
Key: The basic idea behind the“bow-wow” theory is the natural sounds. Primitive words could have beenimitations of natural sounds which men and women heard around them.
3. Whyare interjections such as Ouch considered to be unlikely sources of humanspeech sounds?
Key: Interjections contain soundsthat are not otherwise used in ordinary speech production. They are usuallyproduced with sudden intakes of breath, which is the opposite of ordinary talk,produced on exhaled breath.
4. Whereis the pharynx and how did it become an important part of human soundproduction?
Key: The pharynx is above the vocalcords (or voice box) which acts a resonator for sound produced via larynx.
5. Why do you think that young deaf children whobecome fluent in sign language would be cited in support of the innatenesshypothesis?
Key: If all children, including borndeaf can acquire language at about the same time they must be born with specialcapacity to do so. The conclusion is that it must be innate is to saygenetically determined.
6. With which of the four“sources” would you associate this quotation?
Chewing, licking and sucking are extremely widespreadmammalian activities, which, in terms of casual observation, have obvious similaritieswith speech.
Key: a) The divine source: Languagecame from Saravasti wife of Brahma.
b) The natural sound: language came from imitations of heard sounds.
c) The physical adaptation source: language came from physicalaspects distinct from other creatures.
d) The geneticsource: language came from innateness hypothesis. Babies are sign languageusers or gestural. Human are born with a special capacity for language.
Tasks
A. Whatis the connection between the Heimlich maneuver and the development of humanspeech?
Key: The connection between theHeimlich maneuver and the development of human speech is that both movementstry to push air out through the lungs. The former is a mechanical procedure todislodge any obstruction in the air passage while the latter is a voluntaryprocess of vocalization required for speech involving the vocal chords, theoral cavity, the tongue etc. for speech output.
B. What exactly happened at Babel and why is it used in explanations of language origins?
Key: The Bible says that: “... thewhole earth was of one language and of one speech...” after the flood.Communication among men was good. Men could freely express their ideas,designs, plans and notions with one another... and invent ways to implementthem.
The indication of scripture is that God has put man on a 6000 yeartime schedule. One reason is to let man learn that he is incapable of governinghimself apart from the laws of God. Recent history shows how, with the languagebarrier less of a problem today than in centuries past, the communicationbetween peoples, nations and cultures is “bringing the world back to the timewhen the whole earth was of one speech”.
C. What are the arguments for and against ateleological explanation of the origins of human language?
Key: We look at evidence thatlanguage is an innate ability of the human brain, an idea linked to NoamChomsky. But many linguists and psychologists see language as one facet ofcognition rather than as a separate ability. SinceChomsky and Gould have made a number of assertions that language (thecommunication system unique to human beings), could not have evolved throughnatural selection, and natural selection has long been the prevailing theory inevolutionary biology, the challenge presented by Pinker and Bloom was todevelop a theory of language origin that was compatible with the mainstreamtheory of evolution, the theory of natural selection.
D. The idea that “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” was first proposed by ErnstHaeckel in 1866 and is still frequently used in discussions of language origins. Can you find asimpler or less technical way to express this idea?
Key: Ontogeny is the course ofdevelopment of an organism from fertilized egg to adult; phylogeny is theevolutionary history of a group of organisms. The phrase "ontogenyrecapitulates phylogeny" means that as an embryo of an advanced organismgrows, it will pass through stages that look very much like the adult phase ofless-advanced organisms.
E. In his analysis of thebeginnings of human language, William Foley comes to the conclusion that“language as we understandit was born about 200,000 years ago” (1997: 73). This is substantially earlierthan the dates (between 100,000 and 50,000years ago) that other scholars have proposed. What kinds of evidence and arguments are typically presented in order to choose a particular date “whenlanguage was born”?
Key: There is no consensus on theultimate origin or age of the origin of language in the human species. Scholarswishing to study the origins of language must draw inferences from other kindsof evidence such as the fossil record or from archaeological evidence, fromcontemporary language diversity, from studies of language acquisition, and fromcomparisons between human language and systems of communication existing amongother animals, particularly other primates. It is generally agreed that theorigins of language are closely tied to the origins of modern human behavior,but there is little agreement about the implications and directionality of thisconnection.
F. What is the connection between the innateness hypotheses, asdescribed in this chapter, and the idea of a Universal Grammar?
Key: Universal grammar is a topicthat has been researched in linguistics since the mid-20th century. The basic,fundamental structure of all human languages is very similar, in spite of theobvious differences in vocabulary and sound. This basic structure is calledUniversal Grammar. The innateness hypothesis is the idea that this UniversalGrammar is present in all healthy human minds as a result of biologicalinheritance (in other words, grammar is innate).