How Language Transformed Humanity

8/4/2019 How Language Transformed Humanity

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EPISTEMOLOGY II

ORAL PRESENTATION BY: ADRIANA ESPERANZA NIO

SANCHEZ

CODE: 1010821017 GROUP: 42

TEACHER: MARY ELLEN NIO


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HOW LANGUAGE

TRANSFORMED HUMANITY

BY MARK PAGEL

BIOLOGIST MARK PAGEL SHARES AN INTRIGUING THEORY

ABOUT WHY HUMANS EVOLVED OUR COMPLEX SYSTEM OF

LANGUAGE. HE SUGGESTS THAT LANGUAGE IS A PIECE OF

"SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY" THAT ALLOWED EARLY HUMAN

TRIBES TO ACCESS A POWERFUL NEW TOOL: COOPERATION.


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WHY WE SHOULD LISTEN TO HIM:

Mark Pagel builds statistical models to examine the evolutionary

processes imprinted in human behavior, from genomics to the

emergence of complex systems -- to culture.

He says: "just as we have highly conserved genes, we have highly

conserved words. language shows a truly remarkable fidelity."

What the new studies accomplish is a far more sophisticated

analysis of the regularity of language change that earlier scholars

noted or theorized,"


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ABOUT THE LECTURERMark Pagel is an evolutionary theorist with interests

in mathematical and statistical modeling of

evolutionary processes. His current interests include

language and cultural evolution.

His co-authored 1991 monograph on comparative

statistical methods in evolutionary biology is

standard reading for the field and he is the author

of several other statistical methods for identifying

and analyzing evolutionary trends and for inferring

phylogenetic trees.


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ABOUT THE LECTURE

He define language as the most powerful, dangerous,

and subversive trait that natural selection has ever

devised because it allows you to implant a thought from

your mind directly into someone else's mind, and they

can attempt to do the same to you, without either of

you having to perform surgery.


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Instead, when you speak, you're

actually using a form of telemetry

not so different from the remote

control device for your television. It'sjust that, whereas that device relies

on pulses of infrared light, your

language relies on pulses, discretepulses, of sound.


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Languages are genes talking,

getting things that they want.

And just imagine the sense of

wonder in a baby when it first

discovers that, merely by

uttering a sound, it can get

objects to move across a room

as if by magic, and maybe

even into its mouth.


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LANGUAGE'S

SUBVERSIVE POWER

Has been recognized throughout the ages

in censorship.

The tower of Babel story in the bible is a

fable and warning about the power of

language.

And this leads to the wonderful irony thatour languages exist to prevent us from

communicating.


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We though chimpanzees were

intelligent. but if they really were

intelligent, why would they use a stick

to extract termites from the ground

rather than a shovel? Because it is what

we do.

Now the reason, because

Chimpanzees don't do that is that theylack what psychologists and

anthropologists call social learning.


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They seem to lack the ability to

learn from others by copying or

imitating or simply watching.

As a result, they can't improve on

others' ideas or learn from others'

mistakes -- benefit from others'

wisdom. And so they just do the

same thing over and over and

over again.


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WHY DO WE HAVE A LANGUAGE?

Language really is the voice of our genes. Now having evolved language

though, we did something peculiar, even bizarre. as we spread out

around the world, we developed thousands of different languages.

Currently, there are about seven or 8,000 different languages spoken on

Earth.

We use our language, not just to cooperate, but to draw rings around ourcooperative groups and to establish identities, and perhaps to protect our

knowledge and wisdom and skills from eavesdropping from outside.


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OTHER LECTURERS RELATEDSteven Pinker: Linguist, questions the very nature of our thoughts -- the

way we use words, how we learn, and how we relate to others. In his best-

selling books, he has brought sophisticated language analysis to bear on

topics of wide general interest.

Steven asserts that not only are human minds predisposed to certain kinds

of learning, such as language, but that from birth our minds -- the patterns

in which our brain cells fire -- predispose us each to think and behavedifferently.


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PATRICIA RYAN: LANGUAGE TEACHER

English is big business and languages are

dying as never before. Is there a connection?

Is this another manifestation of

McDonaldisationthe undesirable face of

globalization? Do we want to lose the variety

of languages and all the rich culture that

comes with them?"

Documents

How Language Transformed Humanity