The Concept of Language (Noam Chomsky)
Summary
TLDRIn this classic WTV interview, Professor Noam Chomsky discusses the evolution of language, noting the structural similarities between French and Germanic languages. He emphasizes the complexity and non-random nature of language change over time, influenced by factors like conquest and political shifts. Chomsky also touches on the concept of a 'pure' language as a social construct, the role of slang as a form of innovation, and the importance of pronunciation and intonation in communication. He reflects on the impact of a few words on human emotions and the innate human capacity for language, suggesting that language learning in children is largely influenced by their social environment.
Takeaways
- 🌐 Language evolution is influenced by various factors such as conquest, political changes, and commercial interchanges, leading to shifts in dialect mixtures over time.
- 🏰 French has structural characteristics that make it more similar to Germanic languages compared to other Romance languages, such as the inability to omit the subject in sentences.
- 📚 The concept of a 'national language' is a modern phenomenon linked to nationalism, communication, and education systems, which were not present in earlier times.
- 🔍 Predicting language evolution is extremely complex and involves numerous factors, making it more akin to weather prediction than a deterministic process.
- 🌱 Children naturally acquire the language of their peers, which is often different from the language spoken at home, highlighting the social aspect of language learning.
- 🎓 The 'literary standard' taught in schools often differs from colloquial speech and includes some artificial constructs that do not naturally occur in human language.
- 🎨 Language, including slang, is a form of human creativity and innovation, much like fashion, and is not typically taught but rather emerges organically within social groups.
- 🏫 The role of parents in language development is limited; children tend to adopt the language of their cultural and social environment rather than being shaped solely by parental input.
- 🤔 The human capacity for language is deeply rooted in our nature, similar to our physical characteristics, and is not something that can be taught but rather something we grow into.
- 📖 The study of language, including its structure, development, and social aspects, provides insights into the workings of the human mind and our innate capabilities.
Q & A
What does Professor Chomsky suggest about the structural differences between French and German?
-Professor Chomsky points out that while French is generally considered a Romance language, it shares several structural features with Germanic languages, such as the inability to delete the subject of a sentence, similar to what is found in German.
How does language change over time according to the discussion with Professor Chomsky?
-Language change over time is not a uniform process affecting all parts of a language equally. It involves a mixture of dialects that change due to various factors like conquest, political changes, and commercial interchanges, leading to small cumulative changes that can sometimes result in dramatic structural shifts within a few generations.
What is the role of nationalism in the development of a national language as discussed by Professor Chomsky?
-Nationalism plays a significant role in the development of a national language by creating a standardized form of communication that is taught and promoted within a country, often associated with the rise of national education systems and communication technologies.
Why is it challenging to predict the future evolution of languages, as mentioned by Professor Chomsky?
-Predicting the future evolution of languages is challenging because it involves numerous factors, including social, political, and technological changes, which are complex and often interrelated, making the process more akin to predicting the weather than following a deterministic path.
What is the significance of the concept of 'pure language' as discussed by Professor Chomsky?
-The concept of 'pure language' is a sociopolitical construct rather than a linguistic one. It often arises from a desire to preserve and protect a language from perceived external influences, but it is not based on any objective linguistic criteria.
How does the educational system influence the way we perceive and learn language, according to the conversation with Professor Chomsky?
-The educational system teaches a standardized version of language, which may differ from the vernacular or dialects spoken at home. This can include artificial constructs that are not naturally occurring in everyday speech but are taught due to their association with prestige or formal communication.
What is the importance of pronunciation and intonation in language comprehension, as highlighted by Professor Chomsky?
-Pronunciation and intonation are crucial for language comprehension because they are part of the decoding process that converts auditory input into a format that matches the listener's internal language representations, allowing for understanding even when the words are pronounced differently.
Why does slang exist in language, and what role does it play, as discussed by Professor Chomsky?
-Slang exists in language as a form of innovation and creativity, often used by groups, such as teenagers, to differentiate themselves and express their identity. It allows for the constant evolution and enrichment of language.
How does the use of language in the arts differ from everyday use, according to Professor Chomsky?
-In the arts, language is used within formal conventions that are humanly created, reflecting aesthetic capacities and providing a framework for creative expression. This differs from everyday use, which is more spontaneous and less constrained by formal rules.
What does Professor Chomsky suggest about the innate capabilities of humans to understand and produce language?
-Professor Chomsky suggests that humans have an innate capability to understand and produce language, which is rooted in the structure of the human brain. This capability allows for the rapid acquisition of language, especially in children, and the ability to interpret complex meanings from simple linguistic cues.
Outlines
🗣️ Language Evolution and Structural Differences
Professor Noam Chomsky discusses the complexities of language evolution, particularly noting the structural similarities and differences between French and German. He highlights that while French is a Romance language, it has unique characteristics that make it resemble Germanic languages in certain aspects, such as the inability to omit the subject pronoun in sentences. Chomsky emphasizes that language change is not a linear process and is influenced by various factors including political, social, and commercial interactions. He also touches on the modern concept of a 'national language' and how it contrasts with historical linguistic diversity.
🌐 Impact of Nationalism and Communication on Language
The conversation explores how the rise of nationalism and advancements in communication have shaped the development of national languages. Chomsky points out the significant differences in dialects within regions like Italy and Germany, which can be so diverse as to be unintelligible to one another. He discusses the historical and political factors that have led to the homogenization of languages, such as the spread of English in the United States due to conquest and the suppression of indigenous languages. The idea of language purity and the efforts to preserve it are also critiqued, with Chomsky suggesting that such notions are more about cultural identity than linguistic integrity.
📚 The Role of Education in Language Standardization
Chomsky delves into the role of education in standardizing language, noting that what is taught in schools often differs from the vernacular spoken at home. He argues that the literary standard of a language can be artificial and may include rules that are not natural to the way people actually speak. The necessity to teach these standards is questioned, as they are often not reflective of the language's natural evolution but rather a construct of social and political forces. Chomsky also discusses the challenges of teaching a national language as a second language in diverse linguistic regions.
🎭 Language in Art and the Role of Slang
The dialogue shifts to the use of language in artistic expression and the significance of slang. Chomsky acknowledges the human inclination for creativity and innovation in language, which is particularly evident in teenage cultures and can lead to rapid changes in vocabulary and style. He also addresses the conventions of language in the arts, such as the structured forms of poetry, and how these frameworks challenge and engage the reader's intellect. The conversation suggests that language, like other forms of art, is a medium through which humans express and explore their creativity.
😂 The Universality of Humor and Emotional Responses
Chomsky and the interviewer ponder the universal aspects of humor and the power of language to evoke strong emotional responses. They agree that humor is not solely linguistic and that it may be rooted in deeper human nature. The discussion suggests that the capacity to find certain things comical or to be moved by a few words is likely an innate human trait, akin to our physiological development. Chomsky expresses amazement at the complexity of the human mind's ability to interpret and respond to language, which remains largely a mystery.
👨👩👧👦 Parental Influence on Language Acquisition
The final paragraph addresses the role of parents in language development, with Chomsky suggesting that children's language acquisition is largely influenced by their social environment, particularly their peers. He downplays the ability of parents to significantly alter the natural course of language learning, noting that children typically adopt the language of their cultural context. Chomsky also reflects on the remarkable ability of young children to rapidly acquire vocabulary, highlighting the innate human capacity for language learning that surpasses adult language learning capabilities.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Language evolution
💡Romance languages
💡Germanic languages
💡Mutual intelligibility
💡National language
💡Dialects
💡Linguistic determinism
💡Literary language
💡Slang
💡Language acquisition
💡Artificial language rules
Highlights
Language evolution is not a simple measure of difference; French is structurally closer to Germanic languages in some aspects.
In French, unlike other Romance languages, the subject of a sentence cannot be deleted, making it similar to Germanic languages.
French has developed clitic pronouns attached to verbs, a feature it shares with other Romance languages but not with Germanic languages.
Old and Middle French were more similar to other Romance languages, indicating a historical change towards Germanic features.
Language change is not linear; it involves a mixture of dialects influenced by various social and political factors.
The concept of a national language is a modern phenomenon linked to nationalism and communication.
Language is not a static entity; it's a dynamic system that evolves with the mix of dialects over time.
Predicting language evolution is impossible due to the multitude of influencing factors, much like weather prediction.
The idea of 'pure' language is a sociopolitical construct rather than a linguistic one.
Language rules taught in schools are often artificial and not reflective of natural language acquisition.
Literary language is a standard that may differ from colloquial speech and is taught for social cohesion.
Pronunciation and intonation are crucial for language understanding as they affect the decoding of sounds.
Slang exists as an expression of individual and group creativity within language.
Language in the arts follows human-created conventions that provide a framework for creativity.
Poetry engages the mind due to its compressed form and formal structure, challenging the reader's interpretation.
Humor in language is a response to human nature and is not taught but universally understood.
Words can evoke strong emotions due to the complex and rich structure of the human mind.
Children's language development is primarily influenced by their peers, not necessarily by parental input.
The study of language and linguistics provides insight into the workings of the human mind.
Transcripts
[Music]
the following program is a WTV
[Music]
classic from the University of
Washington in Seattle upon reflection
with Al page Our Guest is Professor gome
Chomsky from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology and a guest lecturer at
the University of Washington what
determines how language in a particular
country evolves
why is French for example so different
from German well first of all you're
assuming the French is so different from
German then the French would probably
say so you know there there's no simple
measure of how different languages are
from one another in fact if you look at
the languages structurally the way a
linguist would look at them French is
different from the other romance
languages in a variety of ways uh which
are which make it more similar to German
and other Germanic languages there are a
number of features of French which are
sort of German in character give us some
of those features well for just to take
a simple one in in all the romance
languages except for French uh you can
delete the subject of a sentence you can
say the equivalent of walks to the store
meaning he walks to the store uh we
can't do that in English but you can do
it in Italian or Spanish and in fact
it's common romance goes right back to
Latin French is the only romance
language in which you can't do that it's
like a Germanic language pretty much in
that respect
uh in uh
uh there what they have what they call
CICS small pronouns that you attach to
verb so you say the equivalent of I him
saw that's common romance but in the
other romance languages you can do
things like I him want to see you can do
that in all meaning I want to see him
but not in French and uh the uh for a
variety of constructions actually uh
there there are quite a number of
respects in which French is different
from the other romance languages
incidentally old French middle French
say French in the medieval period was
not it was like the other romance
languages so something happened to it
that made it less like the romance
languages and more like the Germanic
languages how does language change over
time how did 18th century French change
compared to 12th century French well you
know when we talk about language change
that's very misleading I mean there is
no such thing as a language in Fr I mean
up until say the turn of the centur
uh you could find people in nearby
villages in France who couldn't
understand one virtually could not
understand one another the idea of a
national language is a pretty modern
phenomenon it has to do with the rise of
nationalism and communication and so on
or take say Italy today or Germany today
I mean the differences among the things
that we call German are enormous so
enormous as to lead to non-mutual
intelligibility you have to learn the
national language when you go to school
it's a different language than the one
you spoke at home uh and uh when we talk
about language changing what's actually
happening is that there's some it's kind
of like species changing there's a
mixture of all sorts of dialects and the
the mix changes over time either because
of conquest or some political change or
boundaries are drawn in a different
place or uh you know some kind of
commercial interchange or whatever the
the mixture of these things changes over
time and you know you take a look at it
a few centuries apart it looks like
there's a different language but what's
happened is what what happens is that
between Generations there are usually
small changes having to do with other
influences from the outside and so on
and these things are cumulative
sometimes they lead to pretty dramatic
changes I mean within a couple of
generations the language can have a can
change structurally in quite dramatic
ways and of course in a lexicon you know
the words of the language will that's a
different matter altogether so when
technology develops you get a whole new
vocabulary but if you were in France in
the 12th century and you understood all
the nuances of language could you have
predicted how these various languages
would have evolved over time no it's
totally impossible I mean it's but is it
is it partially random it's not so much
that it's random I was it's not actually
random I for all we know it might be
completely deterministic there's just
too many factors involved it's like you
know it's like predicting the weather
there just too many things going on uh
the uh human life is a pretty
complicated Affair and and uh now
culture our cultur is are T speakers of
English can be misled by this English is
relatively homogeneous you can go a long
way in the United States you know I mean
I just came from Boston and I understand
everybody in Portland and Seattle and so
on but that's not true of most of the
world most of the world uh language
areas langu that you can get very
different languages pretty close by and
much of the world is what we would call
multilingual the closer I get to the
border between France and Germany would
the closer the languages become yeah
well in particular if you go from say
Paris to Rome as you go toward the
Italian border it starts to sound more
more like Italian and at some point it
becomes Italian and there's there isn't
in fact I mean up by now there's you
know there's enough National unity and
so on so you can really find a border
but if you go back a little ways there
was no border there was just a I
wouldn't say Continuum there just
constant changes and fluctuations and
variations and you started speaking
one thing in one place and another thing
in another place and they're not
mutually intelligible often but along
the way there just all sorts of changes
now with the rise of national States and
especially National Communications and
National Education systems and all of
these things which is a pretty modern
phenomenon uh then you get what we call
national languages now as I say English
is unusual uh the reason if you after
all go to pre-colonial Times there were
just hundreds of thousands probably of
different languages spoken in what's now
called United States well through the
destruction of the indigenous population
and it was real destruction kind of
genocidal and the conquest by speakers
of basically one group uh you ended up
having a large homogeneous language but
how could anybody have predicted that I
mean it had to do with the invention of
guns and you know political conquest and
all sorts of things and that's pretty
much what human history is there are
some theorists for example who argue
that they must work very hard to keep
the French language pure what does that
mean it doesn't mean anything I mean
there there's an old I mean virtually
every national language every National
culture or at least the European ones
maybe others uh has a mythology that
that's the only real pure language and
all the others are corrupt uh in France
this is this position is kind of extreme
in fact if you go back to its Origins
it's even a little bit comical I don't
know if anybody's actually studied it
but if you go back to say the 18th
century and you read say
d uh he explains D very U you know
seriously that U he says here's a
prediction for you he says France is
going to be the language of Science and
German and English will be the languages
of literature and the reason for this is
that French is very clear in France the
words follow the order of the thoughts
whereas if you look if you listen to
German and English the words don't quite
follow the words of the thought so
France is good for telling the French is
good for telling the truth because of
its what later came to be called its GAC
Lucidity and Clarity whereas a German
and I think it examples were German and
English maybe Italian uh it's they're
good languages for telling fantasies and
falsehoods so they'll be the languages
of literature now you can it's a sort of
naive point of view but you can see what
was going on in his head I mean for him
the words in French followed the order
of thoughts uh when you hear German it
seems all confused I mean they're
thinking in some other way speaker of
German looks the opposite of course uh
and uh I suspect that the mythology of
the uh Purity and lucidity and the
clarity of French goes back to ideas of
that kind after all French culture had a
a
certain dominance and appeal for a long
time so these attitudes get established
but what does it mean for the language
to be pure or when people say they want
English to be pure what are they talking
about was Shakespeare pure I mean in
fact every stage of History languages
are there is first of all there is no
such thing as a language there are just
lots of different ways of speaking that
different people have which are more or
less similar to one another uh and uh
some of them may have may may have
Prestige associated with them for
example some of them may be the the
speech of a conquering group or a
wealthy group or a Priestly cast or one
thing or another and we may decide okay
those are the uh the good ones and some
other ones the bad one but if uh if
social and political relations reversed
we'd make the opposite conclusions say
take black English Today black English
is considered not quite proper English
on the other hand if blacks happened to
have all the power and own all the
corporations and whites were working for
them it would be the other way around
black English would be the language of
culture and Science and so on and the
stuff that you and I speak would be
considered a degenerate dialect which
you have to get people out of so that
they'll be able to think but that raises
an interesting question why does
language have rules why were we taught
these rules in grade school why is bad
grammar bad grammar well uh when you're
taught rules of your own language in
grade school the chances are very strong
that what you're being taught is false
uh otherwise you wouldn't have to be
taught it but I can see every grade
school teacher about to throw an orange
at you on the screen there's unfort well
we have let me be a little more nuanced
one of the things you learn in grade
school is the literary language now in
English the literary standard is not so
radically different from what say you
and I grew up with but it's somewhat
different the literary standard is not
what I learned in the streets it's not
very different but it's a little
different and when I went to school I I
was taught the literary standard now the
literary standard has some principles
associated with it some of which are
those of a real language some of which
are completely artificial they were made
up by people who had crazy ideas about
language and they're all given names you
never heard of before and in fact the
reason you have to teach them is because
they are not the person's language
nobody your actual language nobody
teaches you I me your language just
grows in your head you know you can't
it's stick a child in a a young child in
an environment where people are speaking
language and that child can no more help
knowing that language than the child can
help growing it's just part of human
growth is for the some component of the
brain to pick up the Lang language you
can't learn it and you don't learn it
anym than you learn to see now the fact
is that the the system that grows in the
brain is sometimes different from a
system which is regarded for whatever
reason as necessary or appropriate or
approved or something some pre there
some Prestige dialect and it may be
different from what grew in your brain
it typically is or it may be a way of
trying to get us to have a common Bond
through language well possible I mean I
think that see that's a problem in
places like say Italy in Italy when
you if if somebody grows up in the
pedmont area and somebody else grows up
in the Naples area they they speak
totally different languages they can't
neither can understand a word the other
saying uh so there when you teach what
they call Italian which is the language
roughly of the area of Florence of
Tuscany you're teaching people what it
amounts to a second language and it's
the national language same as in Germany
and China well China is even worse
because what we call Chinese is a set of
languages which are as different from
one another as the different romance
languages they just happen to be all
yellow on the map or something and they
happen to be a unified political area
but there's no sense in which they're
the same Lang we call them Chinese
dialects but that would be like calling
French and Romanian two different
dialects are the same language Latin or
something I mean all of these terms have
no linguistic meaning they have only
sociopolitical iCal meaning of a very
complex sort and the the the way in
which they interact with authority
structures is crucial so what we call
good English is a system which is partly
artificial I should say which is taught
to people uh because it was legislated
to be good English now some of what is
taught it breaks the rules of any
conceivable human language that's why it
has to be taught over and over again so
I don't know if people still do it in
school but when I was in school you had
to learn all sorts of complicated
nonsense about shall and will which
nobody could ever remember I mean I
forget what it word I I shall you will
or some strange thing uh that violates
there's no I mean there are certain
principles of human biology which
determine what a language can be and no
language can be like that so that had to
be in fact we you can trace that back
and you can find out who invented it you
know some Bishop in the 17th century or
something invented it and decided that's
the way it's supposed to be now that
kind of thing of course has to be taught
because it's totally artificial or you
have to teach people how to say um
uh he and I instead of him and me well
English sort of works the other way I
mean if nobody was bothering you in
English you'd probably say him and me or
here or something like that but you're
taught in the standard language not to
do that there's some other invented
language which is called the literary
standard in which you don't do it and
you ask the question why do you have to
teach people well you have to teach them
because it's artificial it's not their
language and often it's not just not
their language sometimes it's not even
any possible language why is
pronunciation and intonation so
important to language why aren't words
themselves sufficient to convey meaning
well you have to understand somebody
else's words I mean if you go to Central
London and somebody's pronoun speaking
Cockney and uh the words happen to match
ours at some abstract level you still
may not understand them the
pronunciation may be different enough so
that your part of your knowledge of
language is a way of decoding uh noises
that you hear and converting them into a
system that matches your own
representations sometimes now in order
for that decoding system to work the
systems have to be close enough you and
I can do it actually if you listen to us
closely we're speaking different
languages but they're close enough so
that we don't have any I don't have
problem decoding you and you don't have
a problem decoding me uh but again
that's a little artificial that's
because of the artificial Unity of the
English language spoken in the United
States I happen to be in England last
week and I can find myself in places in
England where I don't understand what
they're saying I mean if if I listen to
them for a while we can establish
communication but you have to kind of
retune your system in some manner that's
not understood so that you can begin to
decode what you're hearing what role
does slang have in a language why does
slang exist well people are I why I
don't know but the fact is people are
very Innovative and they like to do
things differently and especially
teenage cultures why do teenagers wear
different clothes well you know whatever
the reason is they want to be different
they like to be Innovative they're
creative and
Fashions and language oh sure and in
fact there are styles of different
groups they some of them change very
rapidly uh the words that are in in one
era are archaic and in another the era
can be three years or something like
that and people are playing with their
languages often again this is not too
common in our societies our societies
remember are basically technological
societies our intelligence and cre
creativity and so on goes into other
things but if you go to say Central
Australia where you're where you're
finding basically Stone Age tribes
there's a lot of innovation in language
a lot of the cultural wealth has to do
with playing games with languages and
constructing elaborate kinship systems
and things which probably have no or
little functional utility it's just the
creative mind that work you know uh so
you get so you get very complex language
games special language system taught as
a puberty right and only a particular
group of people speak it nobody else
understands it does language differ in
the way that it's used in the Arts first
of all there there's a variety of
conventions of of formal conventions
that are humanly created but undoubtedly
reflect our aesthetic capacities uh
that's set a framework within which they
set a framework of rule humanly imposed
rule within PE within which people
create so if I mean an extreme case if
you write a Sonet you have to come
pretty close to a fixed frame uh and
while that's an extreme case case the
same is true of other literary
conventions I mean these part of human
creative innovention has been to create
forms aesthetic forms which are somehow
either appealing to us or challenge our
intelligence or whatever and it's a you
work within them I mean after all
painting a painting on a piece of canvas
that's uh that has a boundary that's
pretty recent in human history and that
that itself imposes a framework which
determines the kind of that you can
produce and in the U the literary use of
language is just a everything from the
structure of a novel to the uh to the
metric character of a poetic form is one
or another uh human invention do you
respond to poetry do I sure I have time
to read it does it does it make you
think differently soort what what goes
on in your thought
processes well you know that's I'm not I
don't feel competent to say but it's
it's a topic that has been discussed
quite intelligently so for example if
you read say not by me I have nothing to
say about it no to pretend to but if you
read say William amon's seven types of
ambiguity you get an intriguing account
of why poetry makes you think in part
because it's so compressed you know and
and you only get hints so the reader has
to impose a lot of structure you have to
put your own self into it and in part
because you
the formal structure itself imposes a
challenge to the intelligence uh if
you're just throwing paints around
randomly it's not a work of art you know
but when they're when it's done within
the framework of a humanly constructed
system of
rule it at least you've got the
prerequisites for a work of art still
may not be whatever it takes whatever
creativity is and that's not understood
that has to be there
too uh but I uh s I have nothing to say
about these topics I wouldn't pretend to
we bring up another area you can claim
you have no expertise in and that's the
use of humor we respond to people who
use humor and communication yet it's not
taught in grade school we don't we're
not taught how to be comedians but we
respond to it and that seems to be the
case in almost every language well see I
don't think that has I too much to do
with language we can be humorous in
other ways too a clown can be humorous
without using the use of without using
language and nobody teaches a child how
to laugh at a clown now I think uh we're
we're going here to interesting topics
but topics where nothing is understood
uh there's no doubt in my mind that
there's something about human nature you
know the basic structure of the human
mind brain which makes certain things
comical and other things not just as
there's certain things about the human
brain that make some things come out to
be a human language and others not
although they could be a Martian
language or something and at its root
it's I don't think fundamentally
different from the fact that we grow
arms and not wings now we don't know why
we grow arms and not wings but you
assume that it's got something to do
with the human genetic endowment and I
think the comparable assumption is true
in all these cases one of the part of
the fascination of the study of language
is that it's one of the few examples
where you can really get some insight
into how it works these other topics
that you're mentioning say humor should
be objected to the same kind of study
but so far it hasn't been clear how to
do it you
know words are endlessly fascinating I
think because it's amazing how somebody
can walk in a room hear a few words and
walk out crying or angry or this whole
series of emotions simply with a few
words doesn't that constantly Amaze you
it's not just words again it could be a
fleeting picture I take say a caricature
you see a few lines you know and it
brings to your mind find uh a person in
a situation maybe a tragic situation or
comical situation or whatever I mean the
human mind is a very marvelous thing uh
it's it's got an extremely intricate and
complex structure which at least at a
scientific level we understand very
little about but what you're prescri
pointing to is central part of it little
hints here and there succeed in evoking
in us very rich experience uh and
interpretation and what's more it's done
surprisingly uniformly for different
people which mean and it's of course
done without any training or very
minimal training nobody would know how
to train people to do this uh so this it
somehow must be the only logical
possibility aside from Angels or acts of
God is it's something rooted in our
nature I mean qualitatively speaking
these phenomena are very much like
physical
growth the the nutrition that's given to
an organism to an embryo is not what
determines that it's going to be a human
or a bird uh what determines that it's
going to be a human or a bird is
something about its internal structure
and what determines that we are going to
be the kind of creature that can speak
and that can uh
uh interpret a sign or a a line couple
of lines or something as uh evoking an
emotional experience or whatever that's
something in our nature but it's so far
beyond what we know how to study that uh
you can only wave your hands at it at
the moment how should parents react with
respect to exposing their children to
language should they expose them to all
aspects of language or should they
simply let them develop any way they
develop I suspect there's very little
that parents can do to change the course
of language development I mean you can I
mean you can we know from exper again
let me say I I'm not speaking about this
from any expertise I don't have any more
expertise than personal experience
there's nothing in linguistic the theory
that gives answers to this question but
experience suffices to indicate I know
cases that you
can create an environment in which a
5-year-old will sound like a college
professor and it's kind of comical but
they'll use big words and you know
complicated sentences and so on I
suspect you're probably harming the
5-year-old but it's possible to do that
children can be molded on the other hand
if you just leave them alone they're
going to pick up the language of their
culture typically they'll pick up the
language of their peers quite typically
there are exceptions but typically
children will learn the language they
heard in the streets so it take me uh my
father spoke with a Ukrainian accent and
my mother spoke with a mixed New York
Lithuanian accent and I spoke Urban
Philadelphia because that's what the
kids were talking in the streets uh and
undoubtedly if you really took my speech
patterns and so on aside you'd find
influences from the parents and the
uncles and so on but overwhelmingly it's
a you pick up the pure culture why this
happens nobody knows and how that but
but there's something about humans
children that that gets them to grow the
language that's roughly that of their
peers uh and it's it's a very rich
system that's extremely rich system they
don't try they can't prevent themselves
from doing it they can't make it happen
uh the the parents can enrich the I CH
anyone who has a 2-year-old knows that
the kid is running around all over the
place trying to find out what the name
of everything is you know what's that
what's that what's that and you can help
them and you can you know you can read
the children and show them pictures and
they're all fascinated with it they're
in a they periods of very rapid language
growth where you just can't satiate the
Curiosity fast enough amazingly so it's
unbelievable in fact what actually
happens is is is really astonishing I
mean there have been for example that
the peak periods of forget the structure
of language which is complicated enough
but just take vocabulary acquisition the
simplest part
at at Peak periods of acquisition of
vocabulary learning new words uh
children are picking them up at maybe a
rate of one an hour or something which
means that they're essentially learning
a word on one exposure and the adults go
into adult education and die trying to
learn a new language oh yeah but you
know if you think what it means to learn
a word on one exposure the the way to
understand how amazing and achievement
this is is to try to define a word so
suppose you had an organism that wasn't
equipped to learn the words of human
language and you really had to teach it
those words by training well you'd first
have to define a word what is the
meaning of table for instance nobody can
do that you have to define the
definition you're using to define the
word but you see what we call
definitions are not definitions they're
just hints if you take the Oxford
English Dictionary you know the one you
read with the magnifying glass uh and
they give you a long detailed thing
which they call the definition of a word
in fact it's very far from the
definition of a word it's a few hints
that a person who already knows the
concept can use to understand what's
going on but remember the child is
picking that up not from the Oxford
English Dictionary with its whole array
of hints the child's picking it up from
seeing it used once or twice now that
can only mean one thing it can only mean
that the concept itself in all of its
richness and complexity is somehow
sitting there waiting to have a sound
associated with it now that can't be
quite true but something very much like
that is probably true that's why you and
I will have essentially the same concept
of table and the same concept of person
uh and of U you
know Nation or all sorts of things and
not complicated things I mean really
simple things like like person for
instance or thing you know we'll have
that even though we all have very
limited experience because basically we
started with those Concepts we're
getting down to the end of the show do
you ever see a time when the study of
language and Linguistics will not
Fascinate You well I suppose so the must
come sometime when your mind
deteriorates to the point where you
can't deal with hard questions I guess
that'll happen Professor gome Chomsky
from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and a guest lecturer at the
University of Washington upon
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