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Different Perspectives on the Origin of Language and the Evidences from the Field of Language Acquisition

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Different Perspectives on the Origin of Language and the Evidences from the Field of Language Acquisition International Journal of Language and Linguistics Vol. 4, No. 3, September 2017 Different Perspectives on the Origin of Language and the Evidences from the Field of Language Acquisition Assistant Prof. Dr. Hüsnü CEYLAN Trakya University Faculty of Education Foreign Languages Department English Language Teaching Edirne –Turkey Abstract Many of us ask questions on the origin of Language and throughout the history of mankind different people from various disciplines have thought and shared their ideas. There was also some time that this issue had been banned to be discussed because the discussion led to no conclusion. In the twentieth century, however, the discussions started again, linguists and scientists from various fields shared their ideas. This study aims to present some ideas from the latest studies from different disciplines and to discuss the issue by comparing them with the evidences from the field of Language Acquisition. The evidences from the field of Language Acquisition do not contradict with the ideas from the other disciplines. In all of these fields language is seen as a species- specific feature and human beings must have possessed this faculty from the very start of their existence on this planet. Keywords: Language, Origin of Language, Linguistics, Language Acquisition, Input, Brain Research, Genetics, Philosophy, Anthropology, Religion I. Introduction Linguists, psycholinguists, language specialists, philosophers or scientists from various other fields have tried to define what language is and it seems that their definitions have many common elements in them. “ Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntary produced symbols.”( Edward Sapir,1921) “ A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates.” ( B.Bloch and G.Trager,1942) “ From now on I will consider a language to be a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.” ( Noam Chomsky,1957) “ We can define language as a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enable us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas and experiences.”( E.Bruce Goldstein,2008) “ Language is succinctly defined in our glossary as a human system of communication that uses arbitrary signals such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols. But frankly language is far too complicated, intriguing, and mysterious to be adequately explained by a brief definition.”( Richard Nordquist,2016) The most common elements in the definitions of language are that it uses arbitrary symbols, sounds and that this faculty is a human trait. It is known that other species also use some kind of a language among their own kind but language that the human beings use is unrivalled in its capability. As Pinker points it out, no animal is capable of speaking in the manner in which people can speak. Speech is a peculiarly human trait. (The Language Instinct) Harrub, B. et al (2003) conclude their article “The origin of language and communication” by stating that the evidence conclusively implies that humans were created with the unique ability to employ speech for communication. Many experiments have been conducted in order to determine whether human beings are the only species that possess a language system the way they do. These experiments have failed to find any other species capable of using a system similar to the human language. In this respect, it can be said that „language‟ is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the human beings from other species. At this point many questions can be asked about language; if this is the reality about language at what time in history did language appear? 71 ISSN 2374-8850 (Print), 2374-8869 (Online) © Center for Promoting Ideas, USA www.ijllnet.com How did human language emerge? Did it emerge by gradual evolution steps? Did the first man and woman possess language? Why didn‟t language appear in other species? Is it granted to human beings by a creator? Is it in our genes? And etc. Such questions about language and its origin have been asked since the existence of mankind and many philosophers, linguists, anthropologists, scholars and scientists tried to answer such questions by using information from their own fields. A summary of the discussions from various fields will follow in the next part. 2. Perspectives on the Origin of language 2.1 Evolutionary Ideas Evolutionists believe that the human being evolved from some kind of animal and this animal according to them was a kind of an ape and that‟s why they still consider chimpanzees, gorillas or other kinds of apes as our nearest relatives. Corballis, M.(2002,in From Hand to Mouth) for example states that : “My own view is that language developed much more gradually, starting with the gestures of apes, then gathering momentum as the bipedal hominids evolved. The appearance of the larger genus Homo some 2 million years ago may have signalled the emergence and later development of syntax, with vocalisations providing a mounting refrain. What may have distinguished Homosapiens was the final switch from a mixture of gestural and vocal communication to an autonomous vocal language, embellished by gesture but not dependent on it.” In today‟s communication it is clear that we use a vocal language together with a gestural language ( Non-verbal or Body Language) but Corballis cannot state an exact date of the switch from gesture to vocal sounds and the years he states are just speculation because it is very difficult to calculate this kind of evolution by just looking at and experimenting on some human skeleton. Likewise Condillac (1746) stressed that man‟s first efforts at communication must have involved only signs that are self-explanatory ( such as threatening postures),not signs whose meaning depends on convention. Condillac believed that the element of spoken language must at first have followed the order of acquisition that was natural in sign language, and that common objects (e.g. fruit, tree ) would be first to be named.(In New Perspectives on the Origins of Language-2013:13) Other evolutionists like Monboddo ( 1774:459) held that there was no need for language until man came together in communities. Just like Corballis and Codillac, Monboddo believed that facial expressions, gestures, paintings, inarticulate cries and imitative sounds would have comprised the early repertoire of communication abilities. In addition to this Monboddo also believed that sounds must have been available before they could be used for communication. He suggested that man is predisposed to imitate the noises he hears in his environment and builds an onomatopoeic repertoire of articulated sounds and enlarges his stock of words. Herder (1772) in his book „Abhandlung‟ states that languages comprising conventional sounds were preceded by natural languages consisting of gestures, postures, exclamations of emotions, and onomatopoeic sounds. Herder adds that man is not guided by instincts to the same degree as other animals are. He thinks that man is superior to other animals because they act in harmony with their instincts. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin also pointed to a gestural theory by stating that:“ I cannot doubt that language owes its origins to the imitation and modification of various natural sounds, and man‟s own distinctive cries, aided by signs and gestures.” Darwin,C. (1896:87) In line with the above mentioned ideas Corballis states that children begin to communicate intentionally using manual gestures from as early as 10 months of age. The dominant gestures are deictic, especially pointing, and are used both to request and to label objects, people, and events. Words are gradually introduced, but even at 16 months of age manual gestures are more frequent than spoken words. By 20 months, the balance has shifted, and spoken words become more frequent. At this point it can be said that children-babies gain their ability to speak with the help of a gestural language first position just as the evolutionists believe it to be. 2.2. Ideas from the field of Philosophy Philosophers saw the origin of language as a fundamental building block in the formation of knowledge. As Sylvain Auroux writes the eighteenth century constituted a „turning point‟ in our intellectual tradition : the question of the origin of languages became a question for „natural philosophy‟ or speculation, which in most cases avoided recourse to religion. Philosophers were divided into two groups regarding the origin of language; these were the conventionalists and the naturalists. The conventionalists hypothesized that the relationship between the form of language (i.e. primarily the sounds and words) and meaning was essentially arbitrary, a convention of society. The naturalists hypothesized that the form of a word (i.e. its sounds ) had a natural association with its referent in the real world. 72 International Journal of Language and Linguistics Vol. 4, No. 3, September 2017 Thus the ideas of naturalists seems to be the same with that of the evolutionists. They thought that through studying the derivational history of words (etymology) the naturalists intended to demonstrate that the origin of all languages was ultimately relatable to words which directly reflected the meanings of their referents. Among philosophers there was also a group of philosophers who were in favour of a historical model. These philosophers thought that all languages share a common ancestor and the origin of language could be traced back by a search for resemblances among all languages to reconstruct the „original language‟ of humanity; and by a search for resemblances among the languages that make up a single family descended from a common ancestor and reconstruction of the latter.(Lefebvre, et al , 2013:47) 2.3. Ideas from the field of Religion Philosophers and evolutionists completely reject any explanation about the origin of language based on religion or a divine explanation.
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