NPR's All Things Considered: Today's Episode in the Series, "The Human Edge"

[Jim Wilce]

Dear colleagues,

It is always sad when the media turn to anyone on the planet except us 
when they do a story about human language. Today's example is especially 
sad. It certainly invites letters. You can read Alix Spiegel's story 
"When Did We Become Mentally Modern?" at 
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129082962.

Here's the NPR page for sending comments— 
http://help.npr.org/npr/includes/customer/npr/custforms/contactus.aspx

Now some nuggets from the story:

NPR turned to Alison Brooks (GWU) as their expert on cognitive evolution 
and language. " 'Language,' says anthropologist Brooks, 'is entirely 
composed of these arbitrary symbols. Every sound that comes out of my 
mouth has some kind of arbitrary meaning assigned to it,' she says. 'I 
could just as well be talking to you in another language and making 
totally different sounds and saying the same thing.'"

Here's the story's sophisticated model of communication:

"For example, if I say the word "bead" you immediately have a picture in 
your mind of what I'm talking about. If I said beads, you'd generate a 
slightly different picture in your mind, that I have made your mind 
form. If I said glass beads — using an adjective to modify the concept — 
you'd immediately see something different than if I said gold beads. In 
this way, I make you think in your mind of a thing that I have in my mind."


Yours truly,

Jim