We all do it

As the laundry is whirring away and Foy Vance is trying his best to make himself heard over the noise the spinning laundry makes I once again find myself at a familiar location in my house: The Spare Room. And you know what that means.... another one bites the dust.

No spoiler alert needed this time but if you do not want to now how come you speak the way you do then look away now.

The Seeds of Speech, Language Origin and Evolution - Jean Aitchison

I always love reading about language and about how it all works and came into being.

But this book was very different to what I normally read. It is a non-fiction one and it deals only in facts. The way it is structured made me feel like a student again. Every chapter it tells you exactly what it will do next. Then at the end of every chapter or section there is a little summary in case you forgot what you had read (handy for half sleepy late night reading or when the mind wanders off a bit). At one time I was getting really excited as there seemed to be this special chapter (6) that kept getting mentioned and it seemed that all the good stuff was going to be discussed there. Well, it was good... but not that good.

So... what's it all about then?

Well, basically it is about how we come to talk the way that we do and yet have no real idea on how that has happened. How we have come to do what we do in speech is not something that is only a linguistic question or even only a physically determined thing. There is various other elements to consider when you look at the development of language and it seems that we cannot even agree on the basics. Like when or how it started, was it very basic at first and then grew or vast first and we tidied it throughout time.

This language that we speak on a daily basis is so vital and important to all of us. Just try to imagine or one moment what it feels like not to understand the language hat is spoken to you... when you go abroad or watch Wallander without the subtitles. You feel lost, unable to understand even the most basic of commands. Makes me wonder if our ancestors felt that too. Were there these little groups of geniuses that developed some kind of basic communication system that made them more able to work together and did this increase their chances of survival and therefore the better development of their species... who knows? Anyway.... I digress. One interesting point that Aitchison makes at the start of the book is that contrary to popular belief language is actually quite bad at conveying basic information. She uses the example of explaining to someone how to tie a shoe lace. if you have to tell someone action by action how to do it... not showing them but just using language it makes it very difficult. A picture would be much clearer than just the words. Seems that language is however, very good a smoothing the wheels of society... we love to talk.

One thing that the book clearly shows is that language cannot be seen as an isolated thing. It developed in humans because our bodies were able to produce the sounds and our brains were able to build and process the information needed to start speaking. And yet, if our language has a place where it all came from why is it so difficult to find common elements between languages. Why do some put their words in one order and others do not? Why do some language use verb endings to indicate how many people are doing something and why do other use endings for nouns to do the same thing? Then there is the question of which type of words we got first and how humans built on their language.

One theory in the book I kind of liked is the one by Noam Chomsky. he suggests that when it comes to language children have a built in knowledge of some basic language principles but that they are also aware of some key either/or options (p192). As they learn their language they figure out which option is valid for their language and a "switch" is set in the brain that then closes off the other option for that variable and the parameters for the use and development of their language is set. Nice theory! ... this is what I always find fascinating about language. I guess that is part of why I did linguistics as well and it is reading a book like this that makes me understand why I loved that so much.

This book is a great read if you want to know a bit more about language and how it may have developed. It is basic and only touches on some theories briefly but it will give you a good overview on what is around to read up on.

Title: The Seeds of Speech, Language Origin and Evolution

Author: Jean Aitchison

221 pages (not counting the notes, index and further reading section!)

Cambridge University Press

ISBN #0-521-78571-5

Books to be read: 150