Symbolic Species review
‘We know how to use a word to mean something
and to refer to something. We know how to coin new words and to assign new
meanings to them. We know how to create codes and artificial languages. Yet we
do not know how we know how to do this, nor what we are doing when we do.’
What
is language? Why don’t animals have a language? Why aren't there any simple
languages? And why are even simple languages almost impossible for other
species to learn? What is the difference between language and nonlanguage
communication?
I
have read this very interesting book called Symbolic
Species. The co-evolution of language
and the brain written by Terrence W. Deacon, an American
Neuroanthropologist. He answers these questions!
He
is not a linguist (sometimes he gets criticism for this reason), but his ideas
and explanations are clear and very logical. He deals with the language from a
new point of view. He explains how the language and the brain co-evolved. He
gives a definition for language that I have never heard or thought:
‘They
might better be compared to viruses. Viruses are not quite alive, and yet are
intimately a part of the web of living processes. Viruses are on the liminal
border between the living and nonliving because they lack organs in any normal
sense, including any vestige of metabolic or reproductive systems.’
If
you are interested in topics like the origin of language, definition of
language, language and mind, etc. this book is worth reading!