The language
What is language?
As North Americans living in the early 21st century, we have been educated about language from the time we entered school. But much of what we learn about language in schools belongs more to a folk model than to an analytic model of language. Here are several pervasive aspects of our folk model of language.
Language is a communication system. It is true that we use language to communicate with others. However, language is much more than a communication system. The most recent thinking about the nature of language suggests that language is first and foremost a representational system; a system which provides us with the symbols we need to model for ourselves, to ourselves, inside our heads, the universe around us. This modeling, carried out using the symbols ("words") provided by language, is commonly called "thinking." The communication function of language, which allows us to represent things not only to ourselves but to others as well, is an added benefit.
Primitive people speak primitive languages. We know, from anthropological research, that there are no primitive people on Earth today; indeed, it may be that the "Neandertals" were the last truly primitive people. And, there are no primitive languages, either. All languages that we know about, including those that are no longer anyone’s native language (Latin, Homeric Greek, etc.) have all the properties of the so-called "modern" languages (French, Spanish, Russian, etc.).
Even languages that have been reconstructed, such as Proto-Indoeuropean (the parent language of most European languages as well as Persian, Hindi, etc.), show no signs of "primitiveness." They have all the characteristics of so-called "modern" languages (see below).
Some languages are "harder" than others. While languages differ from one another in just which parts are simple and which are complex, all languages seem to be about equally complex or difficult to learn in their totality. For example, if we compare
As North Americans living in the early 21st century, we have been educated about language from the time we entered school. But much of what we learn about language in schools belongs more to a folk model than to an analytic model of language. Here are several pervasive aspects of our folk model of language.
Language is a communication system. It is true that we use language to communicate with others. However, language is much more than a communication system. The most recent thinking about the nature of language suggests that language is first and foremost a representational system; a system which provides us with the symbols we need to model for ourselves, to ourselves, inside our heads, the universe around us. This modeling, carried out using the symbols ("words") provided by language, is commonly called "thinking." The communication function of language, which allows us to represent things not only to ourselves but to others as well, is an added benefit.
Primitive people speak primitive languages. We know, from anthropological research, that there are no primitive people on Earth today; indeed, it may be that the "Neandertals" were the last truly primitive people. And, there are no primitive languages, either. All languages that we know about, including those that are no longer anyone’s native language (Latin, Homeric Greek, etc.) have all the properties of the so-called "modern" languages (French, Spanish, Russian, etc.).
Even languages that have been reconstructed, such as Proto-Indoeuropean (the parent language of most European languages as well as Persian, Hindi, etc.), show no signs of "primitiveness." They have all the characteristics of so-called "modern" languages (see below).
Some languages are "harder" than others. While languages differ from one another in just which parts are simple and which are complex, all languages seem to be about equally complex or difficult to learn in their totality. For example, if we compare