Sun, 08/01/2010
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The Evolution of Language
by Bret Peterson, Ph.D.
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What is the link between language and learning? While exploring these issues, fundamental questions arise that have far-reaching effects for the classroom and beyond.
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The most fundamental mechanism by which humans share information is language, but does language fall into the category of biologically evolved function or cultural invention? If it is, at least in part, an evolved function, how did language evolve, and what are the mechanisms of the mind that depend upon it? How language came into being has intrigued many great minds, including Charles Darwin, but it is also a question that we can all understand and ponder. In the course of thinking about language and its evolution, we inevitably introspect and examine the very process of thought itself. We grit our teeth in frustration with what the past hides from us. But ultimately, we may experience personal epiphanies about the workings of the mind, triggered by ideas conveyed to us through the language upon which we are reflecting. There is a great deal to read on this topic, and much of it is worthwhile. Here we shall only attempt to whet the appetite.
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