by onacruse 30 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
OK, so since SNG suggested this (in the "Intelligent Design" thread), let's take a shot, eh?
Take a human baby, immediately from the womb; provide every physical need, but absolutely no direct contact whatsoever! No faces, no voices, no sounds, no other humans, no animals, no trees and leaves and flowers--just a pure and simple newborn, clean slate.
Would this baby naturally develop a language, some language, any language?
I submit that it would simply and fairly quickly die.
Craig
Hmmmm, onacruise, gotta think about that a bit.
Jeff
OK a newborn abandoned will die. If however you are questioning whether language skills are hardwired then yes they are. Steven Pinker wrote a readable book entitled the Language Instinct in which he lays out the state of research in this field and it's implications. Children born deaf and mute have developed languages of their own that utilized a fundemental syntax.
Just wanted to say I'll show up here later (Lots of work today/tomorrow).
Pole
My 5-month-old has developed a language. Some examples:
"I'm hungry" = "Waaaaaaaaaa!"
"I'm tired" = "Waaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"I've messed in my diaper" = "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Ok, it's not exactly a "language", per se,...
pete, now there's that Pinker book again, which SNG also mentioned.
Dang it, are you guys saying I have to read yet another book?? LOL
I daresay (hope ) that y'all will be able to provide some excerpts.
I don't believe it would. Language is learned by hearing it over and over. If a baby never heard the human
voice i doubt that it would learn the language.
not "the" language, a language
Language is language. Whether it is a language or the language.
pete, one of the challenges here is: Just what kind of experiment could be constructed to demonstrate, in a completely objective way, the independent development of language in a human being?
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle comes to mind.
<--waves to chachasmum! Hi there!
