Re: Human language (long)

Michael McBroom (bodhi@earthlink.net)
Fri, 10 Jan 1997 21:38:14 -0500

John A. Halloran wrote:
>
>
> Share with me, please, what argument(s) for spoken language being instinctual
> you personally find most persuasive.
>

1. The Language Acquisition Stage and child language acquisition

2. The human supralaryngeal airway

3. Broca's and Wernicke's areas

4. The fact that ALL human societies and cultures, from Alaskan Eskimos
to Australian Aboriginees, have language.

5. The fact that ALL human languages fall into a finite group of
typological categories. Languages within a category will share common
features, but need not share a common origin. This argues for some sort
of mental template for language that exists at an instinctive level.

Michael McBroom
CSUF Linguistics