Language, gesture, etc

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>From my limited background in linguistics, I have come to the conclusion
that gesturing (signaling "come here", "stop") would have come first
because the human body was not always capable of producing vowel sounds.
It took the dropping of the larynx into the position it is now in for
speech to be possible. Also, the brain had to develop the capacity for
processing something as complex as language.

As stated in previous postings, ASL is a language just as complex as any
spoken language. It has structure, verb agreement and ways to express
time. I believe the symbols that the great apes use do not have the
neccessary components to be considered a true language.


Candie T. Jensen


"However elegantly your dog may bark, he can't tell you his father was
poor, but honest." -- B. Russell

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