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

[Alexandre Enkerli]

Maybe we could engage Brooks in a conversation about language. She
seems to be mostly paleo.
http://www.gwu.edu/~anth/who/brooks.cfm


On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 22:55, Jim Wilce <jim.wilce at nau.edu> wrote:
> 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
>