NPR's All Things Considered: Today's Episode in the Series, "The Human Edge"

[Janina Fenigsen]

"paleo"seems like a generous way of putting it :)

janina

On 8/9/10, Alexandre Enkerli <enkerli at gmail.com> wrote:
> Maybe we could engage Brooks in a conversation about language. She
> seems to be mostly paleo.
> http://www.gwu.edu/~anth/who/brooks.cfm
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 22:55, Jim Wilce <jim.wilce at nau.edu> wrote:
>> Dear colleagues,
>>
>> It is always sad when the media turn to anyone on the planet except us
>> when
>> they do a story about human language. Today's example is especially sad.
>> It
>> certainly invites letters. You can read Alix Spiegel's story "When Did We
>> Become Mentally Modern?" at
>> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129082962.
>>
>> Here's the NPR page for sending comments—
>> http://help.npr.org/npr/includes/customer/npr/custforms/contactus.aspx
>>
>> Now some nuggets from the story:
>>
>> NPR turned to Alison Brooks (GWU) as their expert on cognitive evolution
>> and
>> language. " 'Language,' says anthropologist Brooks, 'is entirely composed
>> of
>> these arbitrary symbols. Every sound that comes out of my mouth has some
>> kind of arbitrary meaning assigned to it,' she says. 'I could just as well
>> be talking to you in another language and making totally different sounds
>> and saying the same thing.'"
>>
>> Here's the story's sophisticated model of communication:
>>
>> "For example, if I say the word "bead" you immediately have a picture in
>> your mind of what I'm talking about. If I said beads, you'd generate a
>> slightly different picture in your mind, that I have made your mind form.
>> If
>> I said glass beads — using an adjective to modify the concept — you'd
>> immediately see something different than if I said gold beads. In this
>> way,
>> I make you think in your mind of a thing that I have in my mind."
>>
>>
>> Yours truly,
>>
>> Jim
>>
>