While attending my Philosophy of Language class the other day, the professor mentioned an interesting fact near the end of our time together. He said that there have been recent studies pointing toward the idea that humans are innately born with certain elementary principles of language, such as having a natural sense of whether a the order of particular sets of words and the ideas they represent “fit” together, or flow and form a coherent message. Unfortunately, he did not have time to further explain his statement, but I found the thought interesting.
Would it not make sense that God would instill some of these princples within us to properly set us up for the ability to communicate with one another? I wish he had been able to explain more…perhaps I will have a chance later to further explore this topic.
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Thursday, 29 January 2009 at 12:36 pm
laurenrae
Seriously, this is so interesting. There is research that shows both sides. For example, a girl that was abused and had no contact with people until she was 12 (I think)… she never learned to speak. However, she did communicate a little. Also siblings who were abused, but they developed their own language. Also, babies babbling… it has patterns, showing they’re most likely trying to communicate. No animals do this. I believe the reason we are so unique (as opposed to animals) is that we can communicate with each other.God not only instilled in us the ability to communicate, but also the desire to have relationships that require communication. So cool!