[Linganth] Toothpicking

[Patrick, Peter L]

not an anthropologist - esp. the physical kind!
so I am trying to make sense of the argument.
I would be glad to hear a clarification by someone who gets it.

I wonder if there is not a problem with the reasoning here,
ie, temporal order being mistaken for causality
and/or for proximity in time...

The facts that "The proprioceptive information is not only protective
but critical feedback for the tongue posturing necessary for speech,"
and that "when normal cranial nerve V function is distorted ...
[there follow] various effects on the phonetic quality of speech"
surely don't imply that such developments signal the presence of
language production.
	Similarly, even assuming Wolpoff is correct that
"the major elements of neural organization associated with language
were present as early as 2 million years ago", surely it is logically
required that they be in place BEORE language - but it is not logically
required that language production must shortly follow them.

If this is all that the article is meant to show - that *some* bits of
the hardware used for language were in place 2 million years ago -
I can't see that it says anything very important about language itself.
Wolpoff argues MOST of it was in place - what does this add?

Further, I don't get the main argument. The authors seem to say that
the need to vocalize complex sounds made toothpicking necessary - that
is the crux of the piece - but what is the evidence that this need
predated
the toothpicking? Proprioception and biofeedback in contemporary babies
at the babbling stage?!

Perhaps I misunderstand the argument - this is not the sort of
thing I'm used to reading - but I don't see why it should convince us...

	-peter p-

Peter L Patrick
Dept of Language and Linguistics
University of Essex
patrickp at essex.ac.uk


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu
> [mailto:owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu] On Behalf Of Robert Lawless
> Sent: 02 December 2004 15:57
> To: linganth at cc.rochester.edu
> Subject: [Linganth] Toothpicking
>
>
> Could I get reactions from some linguistics on this article:
> <http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CA/journal/issues/v45n3/0436
> 01/043601.html>?
>
> Robert Lawless
> Department of Anthropology
> Wichita State University
> Wichita KS 67260-0052
> (316) 978-3195 (department)
> (316) 978-6185 (office)
> (316) 978-3351 (FAX)
> robert.lawless at wichita.edu
> Http://webs.wichita.edu/anthropology
>
>