LINGUIST List 11.2237  Mon Oct 16 2000  Disc: Does "Language"
Mean "Human Language"?  Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <>
1. Larry Trask, Re: 11.2232, Disc: Does "Language" Mean "Human
Language"?   2. A A, Re: 11.2233, Disc: Does "Language" Mean
"Human Language"?  Message 1: Re: 11.2232, Disc: Does "Language"
Mean "Human Language"?  Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 14:18:49 +0100
From: Larry Trask <>  Jess Tauber writes:  > Yet its pretty
clear that simplification often follows complexity. Neoteny is >
just one example from evolutionary biology (there are plenty of
others, such > as parasitic crabs that start out as complex,
mobile babies and end up as > simple jelly-like reproductive
masses). And similarly in language- paradigm > leveling, for
instance, or reduction of morphology (think Aleut). Lots of >
other examples.  Well, I query this analogy.  When a formerly
free-living species adopts parasitism, it typically undergoes
the wholesale loss of functional structures, which are not
replaced: organs of motil