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

[Larry Gorbet]

On Aug 9, 2010, at 8:55 PM, Jim Wilce 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.

But how many of "us" have said anything in print about cognitive  
evolution and language? The mainstream of linguistic anthropology (at  
least as kinda self-defined) does very little concerning evolution or  
the biology of language in general. If NPR went to the chair of just  
about any anthropology department in the country and asked for someone  
to talk to a reporter about cognitive evolution (or cognitive  
evolution specifically in relation to language), how many would put  
the reporter in touch with a linguistic anthropologist? Very few  
textbooks for linguistic anthropology courses talk at all about  
evolution or the biology of language.

Other than asserting that the really important questions about  
language are those of mainstream linguistic anthropology, how many of  
us do have something to say to such a reporter about cognitive  
evolution, something based on actual professional work in our field?


> 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."

I don't think this was offered as a "sophisticated model of  
communication" --- it is intended to be part of the story. Not that I  
would have offered just that part....

- Larry Gorbet




-- 
University of New Mexico     lgorbet at unm.edu
Anthropology Department
Albuquerque, NM 87131