Comments on: Chimps show that actions spoke louder than words in language evolution

By: Christy

Christy — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 22:24:03 +0000

This article is good counter evidence against the strong Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, showing that there is more to communication than vocalized language. We’re reviewing this in my Linguistics class on Language, Culture, & Society and have brought up the fact that non-human species can communicate without a standardized language. The deterministic approach (or strong Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis) would suggest that since thoughts are considered non-verbalized sentences, that those without a language with sentence structure have no thoughts. This would mean all non-human species have cannot “think” in the way humans do, as Whorf proposed. I’m now researching the relativistic approach, or weak Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, and then into even softer neo-Whorfianism. Interesting article.

By: complex field

complex field — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 19:11:41 +0000

I had always wondered about gesturing and its relationship to language. In fact, while reading this entry I was reminded of a near-altercation a couple of co-workers had one day.
They had “history”, as they say, because the company that I work for tends to pit temporary hires against one anonther. Well, it finally boiled over and and one morning, in the parking lot, there was a group of alleged adults forming a ring around these two persons. They had been engaged in chest puffing (literally) and had just ripped off their respective shirts and were circling each other.
All behavior and body language associated with so many other species.
So, your entry really explained a lot about this most curious event (it was even “on the clock”!)

By: Lilian Nattel

Lilian Nattel — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 19:07:01 +0000

That’s interesting & it fits in with the way babies learn signing. Babies can learn many signs (ASL for eg) before acquiring verbal language and studies have shown that babies who do learn to sign (contrary to fears) acquire verbal language more easily. That would make sense if it was the original basis for language.