Evolution, and 'functional' + 'social'

[Sydney Lamb]

Just a comment on one small point in Steve Long's interesting
message:
On Mon, 2 Dec 2002, Steve Long wrote:

> ...
> The gap in evidence between human non-language and language is huge.  We
> really have no examples of the intermediate stages.  This leads us, wrongly I
> ...

We do have intermediate stages in the developing communicative
systems of young children. It is possible that these
intermediate stages are somewhat like those of the evolution of
human communicative ability.

2nd comment: Steve's (well-expressed) argument, with which I
basically agree, has been presented in a somewhat different
form and with complementary emphases, in my Pathways of the
Brain, pp. 285-291.

Syd Lamb

Sydney M. Lamb                  http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lamb/
Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences
Rice University, Houston, TX