[EDLING:1035] RE: Origin of language

[Gerald van Koeverden]

Dear Gerald

I would suggest Tomasello (2003) 'Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based
Theory of Language Acquisition'. He suggests that SVO (and language use)
stems from our unique capacity for joint attention on an object. This seems
to be related to your thesis.

Best wishes,

Kent Hill

I checked out the abstract for this book, but there is not very much in
common with my book "The Child's Secret of Learning."  

Emotions is half of language.  Unless the writer can illustrate the
interdynamics of our cognitive faculty with our emotional one in producing
language, I find it impossible to take the thesis seriously.  Neither
cognitive nor behavioural constructions are able to reflect how we can
spontaneously generate this mysterious amalgam of thought and emotion.

My thesis is more parallel to Jungian psychology which uses a quartet of
characteristics to describe personality.  I describe and illustrate the
interaction of a quartet of fundamental personality characteristics which by
combining into one common sense then provides the template for basic
language structure and its dynamics.

Ever run into anything like that?

Gerald van Koeverden