10 January 2012







Bottom: detail from Ara Pacis, in Rome.


José Angel García Landa said...

Some people say that we are explorers all through our life cycle, albeit in a dimnished way, because of the role of neoteny in our development as a species. Our brain keeps on developing after birth, and it does that in a linguistic atmosphere; prior to the existence of fully-fledged language, it effected that development in an atmosphere of social communication. That must be one of the roots of language, and of the permanent creativity of the human mind and culture.

Jesús Sanchis said...

That's true, this 'liguistic atmosphere' is the only one we know of. There isn't a single human group without a spoken language, so it is impossible to know exactly what it would be like to be raised in world without words. But as I said in previous posts, some of the more relevant aspects of language, e.g. syntax, do not require any form of spoken language. The 'invention' of language is only an application of human thought and human communication. It's a very powerful one indeed, but if we look at it from the global perspective of the human mind, it isn't actually so relevant.

Yes, human societies are formed around language. Human groups favour language, as it is the perfect tool for social cohesion and structuring. But for humans as individuals the story is different: our experience of communication goes far beyond language, into the realms of gesture, music, poetry, and every other possible means of using our communicative abilities.

That's exactly what one of our anscestors did. One day, he or she came up with a brilliant game: using a new tool: a word. The game turned out to be quite useful, and it was further developed. As it was so obviously advantegous in many ways, and as it only required the use of a series of vocal abilities already present in most individuals, it was only a matter of time until it became what we now know as 'language'. Someone's creative exploration became a plus for human societies. Who would resist? Who would refuse giving it a try?

When did that happen? How many types of human 'language' got lost in the way? How many steps did that development take?... Nice, probably unanswerable questions.