Before our next class, post a comment to this blog post of at least 250 words summarizing your reading and our discussion of Nicholas Wade’s “Early Voices: The Leap to Language.” The article has a lot of details, all of which you probably don’t need to include in your summary. Focus on the larger take-away messages and the points that I raise during our discussion–the biological roots of language, the processes about how language likely emerged in the human animal, etc.
During class, we will also talk about the issues surrounding:
Contemporary Examples of Plagiarism
Thereâs lesser stuff too; still problematic. At various points in Merchants of Truth, rather than toil in the archives, reading old issues of the magazine or watching old Vice videos, Abramson liberally borrows from those who have: https://t.co/Ux6gdDO9Qg pic.twitter.com/mEvufhFJ3J
— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) February 6, 2019
Nicholas Wade Controversy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Troublesome_Inheritance
https://cehg.stanford.edu/letter-from-population-geneticists
Shadows of The Bell Curve
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve
Other Controversies – Research Misconduct/Falsification
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2012/09/hauser-research-misconduct-reported
Nicholas Wade âEarly Voices: The Leap to Languageâ talks about how language starts to evolve over time. People say words differently but they still have the same meaning and people usually judge them for saying the word incorrectly. There is no right or wrong way of saying a word because different people from different country or states have a different pronunciation but still mean the same thing. He also talks about communicating with animal and why we would only hear sound and not words from them is because we do not fully use our brain 100%. We only use half of our brain when using were trying to learn something new in our language. Languages starts to evolve as human learn more about different type of communication with people around the world. We start to learn different language from other people around the country. Learning different language helps us evolve as human because we are expanding our vocabulary, grammar, and speech. In addition, he talks about the genetics that we get from our parents, where our heritage is from, and how its being passed down to us? Our DNA makes us who we are and that the language we learn from our parents because they might not speak English so our parent will talk to us in there native language. We start to learn our parentâs native language but we also go to school to learn English, which makes our speech, vocabulary, and grammar. Our language has been expanding since the day we were born because we learn many different ways of speaking and saying each word or phase.
Analyzing Nicholas Wadeâs âEarly Voices: The lEap to Languageâ is very strange, as is with any written piece coming rom a writer whose views are very controversial. Looking into this piece through the lens of caution, we start to investigate what view on language he has here. Wade starts to discuss the differences between animals and humans. What are certain animals known for vs what are humans good at? Wade says that only us humans can communicate with a high level of efficiency, that this skill or trait has literally evolved depending on our needs and wants. For example, if we want to have a certain spouse, out eloquence with words can help us with that, with the best matchups procreating, thus the best genes are passed. Also, the need to communicate in situations where lives are on the line. People who survive these situations then go on to reproduce, which leads to better genes of communication. The actual origins of human communication are unknown, but the earliest signs are tools to etch drawings and writings into rock, or canvases of different materials. Speech, though, is harder to trace, but we can only assume that in its most basic form eons ago, it was not as complex as it is now.
While the idea that a trait like communication and language has evolved from the beginning of humankind, Wade has written pieces that go far beyond this idea. Even in this piece, Wade quotes researchers who have been disgraced in forging research material for their own advancement, in the example of Marc Hauser. This piece has very good ideas, but should be taken with a grain of salt knowing and understanding who wrote it.
A Short Summary of Nicholas Wadeâs âEarly Voices: The Leap to Languageâ
This article investigates the development of modern human language through evolutionary processes of natural and sexual selection. Wade looks at the functions of syntax, grammar, sentence length, variety, and recursion. He compares relations of the functions to the processes to render meaningful principles of linguistic theory.
Language development, within the natural selection process, is viewed as messages that assist survival. In an example of various alarm calls from vervet monkeys, Wade describes the different calls that illicit appropriate responses to eagles, leopards, and snakes. Yet, he distinguishes these calls apart from human language by quoting Dr. Marc Hauser, who says, âThat suggests those systems were used way before language and therefore did not evolve for language, even though they are used in language.â
Wade develops on this idea, continuing into syntax and the hierarchy of meaning by combining different sounds. He introduces ideas from a Dr. Derek Bickerton that syntax, as it is used in modern language, didnât appear until humans evolved enough to âleave the forest.â Wade quotes Dr. Bickertonâs claim that, âThe need to pass on information was the driving force.â Wade writes that this development probably came âwhen a genetic change may have perfected human speech.â
Language development, within the sexual selection process, is viewed as messages that influence social pairing that enable sexual reproduction. Wade examines a theory by Dr. Robin Dunbar, involving social behaviors of monkeys that groom one another and cement relationships within the community. As communities become too large these behaviors become inadequate, offering opportunity for more sophisticated developments to occur. Dr. Dunbar claims language is an evolved way of keeping communities together. Thus, the individuals that are more articulate can connect and attract more suitable mates for reproduction.
In Nicholas Wadesâ âEarly Voices: The Leap To Languageâ there is a discussion of archaeology, genetics and human behavior that are all based on the formation of language and where did it develop. He gives us a point of view of what linguistics actually captivates and some of those criteriaâsâ is the idea that conversations is an important element in the linguistic culture. Language is also a cognitive developer in the way we articulate our ideas and how we speak to each other through the use of syntax. Wade also uses animals (notably the apes) as a form of an evolution inquiry, that provides an understanding of how certain species communicate with each other through sounds. Dr. Steven Pinker, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, states âthat language drove sociality: it was because people could exchange information that it become worthwhile to hang out together.â This perspective I found rather interesting because we live in a society where people come from all parts of the world and they speak in different tones as well as dialects that emerges the very idea that the evolution of language is an ongoing process. Through the social atmosphere people are able to communicate their thoughts with others as a growing process. Dr. Pinker also states, âthat there are three essential features of human life â know-how, sociality and language.â These interactions are part of the constant evolution development of human interaction and how it is interpreted in society. This has many similarities with the ways animals have taught us much of their communication skills and it continues to stay one of the biggest research topic amongst people in the linguistic field.
Nicholas Wade writes about the evolution of language, natural selection and sexual section. These topics never peaked any interest in me until reading his works and all the different ideas introduced by him and all of the theories of people of importance. Wade intrigues my mind with his writings on the aspects that have been argued amongst the elite for centuries, âWhat are the influences that lead to Human Protolanguage, including but not limited too, syntax, grammar, meaningful sentence and the order of words. The evolution of language is one that many have deemed as a subject of reductionism, by taking such a simple question and complexing it. The most interesting concept to me is the gene theory. In which the claim of change is in oneâs genes. It seems to me that all of these phenomenal theories combined help us to evolve as language speaking Human, our need to communicate, our need to survival, whether by natural or sexually selection, and the need to resolve conflict and lest the need to reproduce.
I actually enjoyed the read of Wades story. Me as a person of interest i have always been interested in the how and when and where. In this article they speak about from where and even maybe how did the complexity of language reach its high points. Whatâs really intriguing is the idea that during travel they wore forced to whether it may have been hand gestures or sounded they needed the ability to communicate to survive until they reached there settled destinations. I couldnât imagine the complex sentence I know of today being conjoined by and brought upon by such simple ways of sound and or tone for understanding. A prototype to language proudly took about a few months to produce only a few years to prefect only for over time it to become a mess of complicated corrections and spell checks. I now wonder if the first gestures made to communicate are anything similar to the gestures we know of as sign language today. Reading the article it was said that once on two feet our ancestors were able to free our hands for communication even for the little of things like pointing our directions or relaying a message passed from village to country. Being able to actually communicated lead to a great thing like the ability to able to be social. Whether in a sexual way or a way of survival communication jump started an extreme evolutionary journey.
In Nicholas Wadeâs article âEarly Voices: The leap to languageâ He discusses the importance of the evolutionary development of a language. He demonstrates that no one actually knows how the language is originated and this is because language changes over-time. He also mentions that what makes us able to form a language and to communicate with each other better than animals ( in a sense ) is words since human have the capacity to combine the sounds together to form a sentence due to the fact that human have flexibility to create an infinite number of new words and meanings. When for animals is different and they have only a few sounds that they depend up-on. He had shown now the five to six thousand languages in earth has a common thing to help people form a sentence that could make sense. One of these common things that languages have in common, as we discussed in class is âgrammarâ since grammar in universal. In order for someone to speak a certain language they must know itâs grammar and also by interacting verbally with other people. This article also indicated a language called âPidginâ. Based on my understanding of that word it means in a way people who travel to other countries that speak different languages than they originally speak and all they know is limited vocab and no true gramma. For instance, when slaves were brought to the United States, they definitely spoke differently from one another do to the fact that they were coming from different parts of the world and yet they were able to form a sentence; this proves that there is no original language and by interacting with one another and even knowing very few grammar, it is possible to form a sentence.
Early Voices leading to language.
The more communities we join the more we are adapting to their language. For our ancestors the Neanderthals communicating between husband and wife or brother and brother the means of communication was minimal. We learn as families to read signals through gestures and words more than outside sources can. How is it then people have developed language? Through trade routes people from different villages had to communicate and evolve so there needed to be systematic way of speaking and then formed language. This language started with just sounds and soon became words and then sentences . This process of evolution was developed gradually and what we learn from this article is that our genetics adapted as well. Our language compared to animals language is more purposeful. We have a logical way of speaking or at least the potential. Our time to speak has come and we still have a long way to go.
In Nicholas Wade âEarly Voices: The leap to Languageâ we learn the possible influences human process to language to become what we now think of as language. The article explain the importance of development of modern human language through evolutionary processes. There are two cases it can happen, natural selection in case language is a survival trait and sexual selection in which case language is a mate choice selection. Some example of natural and sexual election of the evolutionary forces could explain through human need of communication between each other (natural selection) and also the demand of sociality with maintaining a sexual bond in an evolving population. Wade describes the different sound animal use to communicate, appropriate and correct responses to eagles, leopards, and snakes the article also talked about the purposes of syntax, grammar, sentence length, variety, and recursion. He talked about the connection of the functions to the processes which cause important aspect of linguistic theory. Linguistic help us individual know what something is and what everything else isnât.
Nicholas Wadeâs article âEarly Voices: The leap to languageâ discusses the importance of the development of a language. Wade talks about how no one knows how language was created but it is something that has been changed and has different versions. He talks about the difference between the way humans use language to communicate versus animals who are unable to do use words or facial expression like we do. As mentioned by the author, humans have the tendency to create an infinite number of new words and meanings. For instance terms like âLOL, OMG, SOSâ are used as shortened versions of certain phrases which is easier to understand and use for instance when texting or expressing opinion on social media. Also something was was mentioned in class and in the article is the importance of grammar. In order for someone to speak a certain language they must know itâs grammar because everyone uses grammar differently. The words can be the same and all languages have a word to describe a certain action or thing but the way grammar is used is different. Language is something basically traveled across the word and built itself with different meaning and variations. You can be from anywhere in the world and still create sentences where ever you go because language is all the same, just different pronunciation, slightly different grammar, and words can be switched up in meaning.
Nicholas Wadeâs article âEarly Voices: The leap to languageâ discusses the importance of the development of a language. Wade talks about how no one knows how language was created but it is something that has been changed and has different versions. He talks about the difference between the way humans use language to communicate versus animals who are unable to do use words or facial expression like we do. As mentioned by the author, humans have the tendency to create an infinite number of new words and meanings. For instance terms like âLOL, OMG, SOSâ are used as shortened versions of certain phrases which is easier to understand and use for instance when texting or expressing opinion on social media. Also something was was mentioned in class and in the article is the importance of grammar. In order for someone to speak a certain language they must know itâs grammar because everyone uses grammar differently. The words can be the same and all languages have a word to describe a certain action or thing but the way grammar is used is different. Language is something basically traveled across the word and built itself with different meaning and variations. You can be from anywhere in the world and still create sentences where ever you go because language is all the same, just different pronunciation, slightly different grammar, and words can be switched up in meaning.
Nicholas Wades ,âEarly Voices: The leap to Language was a very interesting read. He talks about his different types of selection.he begins to explain how the importance of development of modern human language through evolutionary processes. The two selections that he speaks about is, Natural Selection, and Sexual Selection. Natural selection is is where language is a survival trait and sexual selection is where language is a mate selection trait. By using the natural selection trait it can be said that, âevolutionary forces can be explained through human needs of one anotherâ. Many ways to interpret that quote. To me this means that humans needs other humans to live or be able to survive. Also saying that evolutionary forces wouldn’t be possible without the existence of humans. Also states that language can also evolve. Language doesnât stay the same. There are words that are spelled the same but will have different meaning. For someone to understand our language or be able to speak out language , they must first be able to retain the information about its grammar. Language itself has groen and proven to be more complex than what we thought it could be. There are many many many different languages that are found throughout the world. Just on my block there are at least 10 different languages that we speak. We can also spread our knowledge of language with others that might not speak it. I can speak french and go to Russia, where no one might speak french, I can teach one person and they teach another so on and so no. So who knows in a couple years a lot more people will be able to speak french in russia. What i am basically trying to say is that we don’t know what language is when we are born. We learn as we grow, we learn from our parents.How do you know the language that you speak is actually the language that you speak?Where did that language come from ? how do you know the words that you are usign are actually the words that you want to use? So many thoughts after reading Nicholas Wades, âThe Leap into Languageâ. Think about that!
Nicholas Wadeâs ,âEarly Voices: The leap to Languageâ was a very good reading. He talks about his different types of selection. He talks about natural selection and sexual selection. Natural selection is the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. Sexual selection natural selection arising through preference by one sex for certain characteristics in individuals of the other sex. Also he talks about evolution as well. Evolution is the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth.evolution is important because it helps the process of developing languages. He explains how natural selection says language is a survival trait. These selections hat you learn about are possible influences that led to human language. He introduces us to polymath. Polymath is a person of wide-ranging knowledge of learning. He also talks about recursion a little bit as well. Recursion is where self referencing has become what we now think of language as. There are a few examples syntax, grammar, and ordering words in meaningful sentences. You learn that language do not say the same it can change. All languages are different including the spelling, grammar, punctuation, and etc.
Nicholas Wade has expressed the connection that the study of linguist should not stick to only the elements that of language but to also other elements like evolution, biology, and many more fields. Wade has mentioned new clues from geneticists have reported that the âKung of southern Africa and the Hadza of Tanzaniaâ who are the 2 human population who have split into the early stages of human evolution humans have communicated but clicks. Which shows that there was an evolution of language as there was of humans. The evolution of the language has been changed because of social influences. People who want to fit in would have to follow what the majority is doing or saying to gather information or to even be able to survive. Which leads to what the article has pointed out, the importance of the evolutionary development of language over time. The first is the natural selection which was touched on above a little, one needs to adapt to change to fit in. For example, when a foreigner moves to a new country that person will have to adapt to that country’s language because if he/she doesn’t know how to communicate with others he/she will be the last one to know information and will not be able to live. Itâs a survival of the fittest and if one does not adapt they will be lost and eventually will not be able to survive in that country. The next process is the sexual selection which means that when one picks a mate being able to communicate with them is important, so it will be a criterion for a person to pick on who knows the same language as they know.
Nicholas Wadeâs article offers an interesting viewpoint on things like vocabulary systems and the evolution of human language. It is interesting to look deeper into these systems not only in human language but in other species as well. Before looking deeper into these concepts I did know how complex vocabulary could get. Vocabulary in language could be compared to memory on a hard drive for most species. Some species can retain more than others but things can get complex. Language can also evolve. It is interesting to theorize how language evolved and developed to the complex system it is today. Dr. Bickerton feels language evolved when humans left the comfort of forest. Because of the necessity to pass messages humans were forced to adapt. Dr. Bickerton also believes that spoken words are relatively new in language compared to signs and gestures. Dr.Bickerton also believes 63 percent of human conversation is devoted to social interaction. This leads me to think about how technical information could be more effectively communicated and if conversation is the best way to communicate technical information if most of conversation is geared to things like gossip and social interactions. Dr.Steven Pinker of MIT feels that language drove society because people had things to talk about and incentive to have a conversation. Dr.Bickerton and Dr.Pinker both have very interesting viewpoints on language and how it evolved but something as complex as language can get trivial so it is important to see things from different perspectives and use data to make logical conclusions.
In Nicholas Wadeâs â Early Voices: The leap to languageâ he focuses on the evolution of language and how human Proto language has evolved into what we know as language today. Today, language includes the use of syntax and grammar, the organization of words into meaningful sentences of infinite length, and length of variety using recursion. Wade also discusses the importance of the evolution process to the development of language which is natural selection and sexual selection.