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Re: [PALEO,LING] ] Re: Language, gesture, etc.
Thomas W. Rimkus (trimkus@COMP.UARK.EDU)
Fri, 16 Feb 1996 00:10:45 -0600
On Fri, 16 Feb 1996, Danny Yee wrote:>
> I was including an extremely large number of single-celled bacteria.
> I'm afraid all I was doing was making the almost purely logical (and
> extremely uninteresting) point that grammar came into existence *at
> some point* (or over some period of time) and that it certainly came
> long *after* non-grammatical communication.
What is DNA if not grammar? Isn't grammar simply structural forms which
when concatonated in certain ways, pass information down the pipe
(Information Science 101)? Doesn't it seem somewhat anthropocentric to
ignore the existence of grammar prior to human use of the concept? If we have
appropriated the concept to aid in our quest for genetic survival, how can
we deny that other lifeforms might in their own way have done the same thing?
I can hardly beleive that we invented grammar, we may not even have
discovered it, we may simply be one lifeform out of many using it, but in
our self important way, we are likely the first to reflexively reference it.
Tom Rimkus
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