Refutation of Chomsky?*

[Paul Johnston]

Yeah--I was going to say, parrots LOVE chili peppers.  Particularly macaws.

Paul Johnston
On Sep 23, 2010, at 10:14 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Refutation of Chomsky?*
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It is not language that distinguishes humans from all other animals.
>
> „Philosophers have often looked for the defining
> feature of humans ˜ language, rationality,
> culture and so on. I‚d stick with this: Man is
> the only animal that likes Tabasco
> sauce.‰[1].  (I would add primatologists and linguists.)
>
> "There's not a single animal that likes hot peppers."[2][3]
>
> [1]   Paul Bloom, a Yale psychologist
> [2]   Paul Rozin, a University of Pennsylvania psychologist.
> [3]   Animals of certain classes.  Birds have no
> problem with capsican.  [Gorman,.]
>
> In "A Perk of Our Evolution: Pleasure in Pain of
> Chilies," by James Gorman, "Science Times," The
> New York Times, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2010, Page D1.
> http://tinyurl.com/28zupcv
>
> Perhaps we can call this the "Paul Hypothesis."
>
> * If this is not one of Chomsky's theses, but
> that of other linguists, I apologize to him and to the members of this list.
>
> Joel
>
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