Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Scribblings From The Study...before language

"I cannot doubt that language owes its origin to the imitation and modification, aided by signs and gestures, of various natural sounds, the voices of other animals, and man's own instinctive cries." Charles Darwin, 1871. The Descent of Man


Before language, man would still have felt the need for food. He wouldn't have had a word for it. He would have just felt it. He would also have known that particular feeling meant he must find food. Again, he wouldn't have thought the words "find food", he would just have known instinctively what to do.

Now, what happened in a group of prehistoric people if one of them was injured and felt hungry? He may not have been able to go find food for himself. Somehow he had to let the others in the group know. Sign language was the answer. He possibly pointed to his mouth, rubbed his tummy, made eating movements with his jaw, or whatever. There would still be no words, no verbal language - but sign language is a language nonetheless.

But surely, by the time man reached that stage, he would be thinking - although without words - that he had to inform the others he needed food. That thought surely must have preceded the concept of making signs to convey his need.

Thought is not much use without language, and language is not much use without thought. So, it seems to me that thinking and language probably developed in tandem as a response to the need to communicate with other members of the group.

Commonly, modern man thinks in language (according to such as Chomsky) not pictures; although this is not always the case. Autistic Savants can sometimes be an exception - Kevin Peet being an example. He is a genius at math, but he doesn't think numbers. Instead he sees colours, and those colours coalesce and intermingle to give him the answers to incredibly complex math in an extraordinarily short time.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that language is a straight-jacket for thought. That could indeed be true. Many times, our thoughts or communications with others are stifled because we can't put our thoughts into words. Misunderstandings are commonplace. How much better would communication be if we could send pictures & emotions to others instead of having to use words? Oh...guess we do...👍👎✌️🙏.

Footnote: I personally think language evolved out of the need to gossip...:) Doc



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