The absence of mutations suggests that another explanation is called for. One would not expect the original language capacity of, say, Homo erectus/sapiens to remain invariant after tens of thousands or even a million years. If UG is on the genes, we know that genes mutate. In fact, as I argued at length in my book, Language: The Cultural Tool, Universal Grammar predicts that NOT all humans can learn all languages, where my claims is that they can. He claims that recursion is the essence of the language capacity, but not all languages have to have it. But he means "capacity" he says, not actual presence of recursion. What he says in that interview is that it is obvious that all humans have the same language capacity, by which he means Merge/recursion. More and more data from many other scientists shows that language is far older than our species. Larry Barham, in which we use data from tool construction and treatment to argue that Homo erectus had language. I have followed up on this with an archaeologist co-author, Dr. My most recent book, How Language Began, argues that language is a human invention, that it is over 1.5, probably 2, million years ago. In my book Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious, I created a “ranked-value” theory of culture and how culture and language build each other, a cognitive symbiosis. If I am right - I am - Chomsky’s principal theoretical works - that language is innate and that all human languages have recursive sentences, are wrong. I have a 15-year running debate with Chomsky in which he (and others) have called me a charlatan, though many other linguists, anthropologists, and cognitive scientists agree with me. I began my career in the Amazon as an evangelical protestant missionary but became an atheist, which caused severe problems in my family, and led to loss of employment as a missionary (who needs an atheist missionary?) I also have had all three types of malaria of the Amazon multiple times, including once when I had malaria, vivax, and falciparum simultaneously. Jungle experiences, including attacks by large anacondas, Amazonian giant centipedes, Wandering spiders, jaguars, pumas, and so on. The four decades I have spent working on about 20 Amazonian languages, including living over 7 years in villages of the Pirahã people, along the Maici River in the Amazon jungle. Some of the things that you might want to ask me about are: I hope to do another AMA soon! If you want to learn more about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture, check out my podcast series: The Story of Language podcast with Dan Everett Thanks to everyone for all your questions and kind words. Follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook!įacebook Twitter Instagram Calendar Please check out our Rules and FAQsĮdit: I'm signing off now.Email us at Step-by-step guide to doing an AMA. See more on our comment removals policy here.Attempting to bypass this rule by adding a ? to a non question will result in a permanent ban.All initial responses to posters must contain a properly punctuated question.Requests should be posted in /r/IAmARequests.See here for tips concerning proof and examples.If it must remain confidential, you can submit proof on our website so we can verify you and your claims. Proof should be included in the text of the post when you start your AMA.Explanation and examples of this rule can be found here.
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