"is the same as"

[Stanley Friesen]

At 07:19 PM 2/1/00 -0700, Dr. John E. McLaughlin wrote:
>> Stanley Friesen

>> A) language is a biological phenomenon, and behaves like other such.

>Wrong.  Language is not a biological phenomenon, but a cognitive one.

Cognition is a biological process.  Ergo, so is language.

>The
>physical structures which allow complex human language evolved along
>biological lines, but language change is note like biology.  When two
>species diverge, they can no longer influence each other.

Not always true.  Closely related species can often exchange a limited
amount of genetic material.  Full cross sterility takes time to evolve.
This means an occasional hybrid can move genes across a species boundary.
And in prokaryotes, genetic transfers can occur between *distant* relatives.

>  A Grevy's Zebra
>cannot interbreed with a Plains Zebra no matter how many times they try.

But lions can interbreed with leopards, and most oak species are inter-fertile.

>> B) language differentiation acts *very* much like biological speciation,
>> except for happening much faster.

>See above.  The speed factor is, indeed, a critical one.

Not that I can see.  It just makes it easier to observe.

>> D) as others have been pointing out here, the similarities are so close
>> that it is even useful to apply cladistic methodology in the study of
>> historical linguistics.

>There are just enough similarities to allow this on a limited scale, but
>tree diagrams have difficulty expressing relationships within a dialect
>chain and cannot show features due to geographic proximity.

Similar issues occur in biology.  Cladistics has trouble with
intra-specific variation, and can get confused by cross-species genetic
transfer, especially in groups where it is frequent (such as bacteria).

--------------
May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at ix.netcom.com