3/2/2024 0 Comments Last word buildAs the book relates, Chomsky appeared at the symposium only to give a public address, which I and many of the others in attendance found largely incomprehensible he arrived and departed without engaging with any of the other speakers.Ĭhomsky first achieved prominence with his 1957 book Syntactic Structures, which argued that syntax could not be explained in terms of associations. Much of the subsequent development has been in more direct opposition to Chomsky and seems set to redefine the nature of language itself. This position was first explicitly questioned by Steven Pinker and Paul Bloom (who were not present at the symposium but are appropriately included in Kenneally's story) in a classic article published in 1990, in which they retained much of the Chomskyan stance but made a strong case for the incremental evolution of language through natural selection. It might be said that Chomsky actually helped prolong the ban, because he has long argued that one simply cannot know how language evolved and has even suggested that language may not be the product of natural selection. One figure who continues to exert a major if not always benign influence is Noam Chomsky, the dominant linguist of the past half-century, who made a rare appearance at the symposium. The First Word is almost certainly not the last word, but it does provide a lucid, readable, comprehensive account of the different ideas that are now current. The focal point for her discussion is a high-profile symposium on the evolution of language held in 2005 at Stony Brook, New York, where many of the leading players met and gave talks, but her reading and interviews range more widely. in linguistics, she is well qualified for the task. An experienced science journalist with a Ph.D. Nevertheless, recent advances in genetics, archeology, neurophysiology and computer modeling have provided powerful if sometimes conflicting leads.Ĭhristine Kenneally reviews the current state of the field in her new book. Most agree that language is in essence uniquely human, so that evidence as to its evolution remains indirect, and speculation can run wild. The current state of the field is largely one of chaos, to the point that some observers might be tempted to think the ban should be reinstated. Eventually, though, the floodgates opened, and the past two decades have seen a deluge of articles, books and conferences on the topic. Speculation about the evolution of language remained stifled for a century, and it was only in the 1970s that muted discussion began to emerge, often with an air of apology. The London Philological Society followed suit in 1872. In 1866, the Linguistic Society of Paris famously banned all discussion of the origins of language. The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language.
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