Chomskian linguistics and human uniqueness

[David Bowie]

From:    Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>

> What precisely does the dramatic metaphor "hard-wired" mean in this
> context
> anyway?  It would seem to denote, logically, only a genetic capacity
> expressed through processes within the brain, but it seems to be
> invested
> with all sorts of elusive connotations.

> Or is it just another successful public-relations term that I'm
> reading too
> much into?


I taught a graduate seminar a couple years ago where we got heavily
into this question, and the best we could do was to say that it means
that there's a genetically-based ability for humans to deal with
highly complex symbolic structures.

Whether that's human-only or not…Well, we don't really have the tools
to say one way or another. It is possible, though, that it's a scalar
trait, with humans near one end of the scale, and past some particular
tipping point where language as we know it becomes possible.

Very truly yours,
David Bowie

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