The human language
Tarzan was told that he had to learn a human language.
He got very upset because he didn’t even know what a language was. So, first he
decided to learn what language means.
On his way, he encountered a language
philosopher with whom he started to communicate in mentalese (as he lacked a
human language). Tarzan asked him whether he knew what language was.
The language philosopher obviously knew what
language was:
‘A natural language can be spoken, written or
signed. Language is a mental faculty which makes a human capable of learning, of
understanding and of producing a language. This faculty is universal for all
humans. It means, every cognitively sane children can learn a language because
the ability to acquire a language, is innate. Of course, the environment also plays
a very important role because we learn from the society.’
As Tarzan heard it, he got upset again because
he lost hope that he could learn a language. He wasn’t a child anymore and all
his efforts to understand what people said, were in vain. But he didn’t give up
and he asked where to go to get more information.
The language philosopher: ‘Go to cognitive sciences
and neurolinguistics as they approach the language from this innatist point of
view. You have to learn about universal grammar and the theories of Noam
Chomsky if you want to know more about this view. Other cognitive scientists,
for example, Steven Pinker, claim that language is an instinct. Others again
think that there is a language organ somewhere in the brain. Or Terrence W.
Deacon says that languages are like viruses. Other approaches view the language
as a tool for communication which was developed to serve humans in order to
express themselves. Language is a means for manipulation: humans manipulate
objects and each other by using languages. The grammar of the language has gone
through an adaptive process to serve the communicational need of human. ’
Tarzan became sad. He had thought language was
like music and a means for expressing emotions as Rousseau and Herder said. Or
at least the result of a logical expression of rational thought as Kant and
Descartes approached it. But in any case, not looking at language as an
inferior system subordinated to humans.
The language philosopher continued: ‘According
to the structuralist view of Ferdinand de Saussure language is a closed
structural system. It means, language has rules which link particular signs to
particular meanings. Chomsky worked out the generative theory of grammar which
is based on the assumption that language is a construction of sentences that
can be generated by transformational grammar.’
Tarzan was becoming sadder and sadder and he
was going to give up understanding all these definitions, when he got the last
stab.
The language philosopher: ’Whatever the
language is, it’s certain that language is unique to humans.’
Tarzan collapsed. He had thought he had been communicating with his animal friends, but the language philosopher said, it wasn’t a language. He didn’t understand what the difference between animal and human communication was. The only thing he clearly understood was that he knew nothing about language. His mind was full of questions, doubts and curiosity. That’s why, he decided to clarify the position of languages…