10.07.2015 Views

who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

326functions remained valid for <strong>the</strong> rest of our history, albeit graduallydeclining and becoming a field for professional musicians.Therefore, when we try to find a “survival value” of music today, tens ofthousands of years after <strong>the</strong> pitch language lost its direct communicational function, weare left with only a few functions that were not replaced by articulated speech.Let us imagine we lost all <strong>the</strong> historical records about <strong>the</strong> crucial importance ofhorses in human history as one of <strong>the</strong> central means of transportation and an element ofmilitary power and we are only left with facts of <strong>the</strong> use of horses in contemporarywestern society. We could have come to <strong>the</strong> conclusion that horses were domesticated for<strong>the</strong> purposes of <strong>the</strong> enjoyment of outdoor life and weekend races. Luckily, <strong>the</strong>re areplenty of records in human history about <strong>the</strong> revolutionary importance of <strong>the</strong>domestication of horses, such as mass migrations, <strong>the</strong> spread of Indo-Europeanlanguages, human military history, etc. Anyway, horses were widely replaced by carsonly about one century ago, and in some parts of our planet horses still play <strong>the</strong> leadingrole as a means of transportation (I remember this myself from <strong>the</strong> mountains ofGeorgia). Unlike horses, pitch language lost its function at least four hundred centuriesago, and no direct records survive from this period. In this situation it is not wise todisregard such important facts of human communication as <strong>the</strong> existence of tonelanguages where pitch plays an important role in <strong>the</strong> lexical and grammatical categories,or <strong>the</strong> existence of whistle and drum languages, where <strong>the</strong> complex messages aretransmitted by means of pitch only. If we disregard <strong>the</strong>se important facts, we will bedoomed to regard music as an enigma only.Small Question for Noam ChomskyConsidering <strong>the</strong> origins of <strong>the</strong> human language, Chomsky (1957, 1986) suggestedthat language appeared suddenly, as a result of a monstrous genetic mutation, and after itappeared, <strong>the</strong> very <strong>first</strong> true human with <strong>the</strong> human abilities of intelligence and reasoninghad a tremendous advantage compared to his hominid family and friends. Chomsky hasbeen criticized for his almost creationist views on <strong>the</strong> origins of language and intelligenceby fellow linguists (Pinker, 1997). His idea of a monstrous random genetic mutation wascompared to a storm assembling a Boeing in <strong>the</strong> backyard. However, as genetic mutationis a random force, you cannot exclude (<strong>the</strong>oretically) <strong>the</strong> possibility that such a mutationcould occur. I suggest a different approach to Chomsky’s suggestion. I believe that evenif we accept <strong>the</strong> idea of a monstrous genetic mutation, Chomsky’s idea still cannot beevolutionarily correct.So here is a <strong>question</strong> to Dr Chomsky and <strong>the</strong> linguists <strong>who</strong> consider Chomsky’ssuggestion of a monstrous genetic mutation a plausible idea:Would a neurologically human child, born in a family of non-languageprimates (or hominids), be able to develop language faculties just from her/hisgenetic abilities, without any language speakers around in <strong>the</strong> early years ofinfancy?I am not a child developmental psychologist, or a linguist, but according to what Ihave learned from published discourses on this subject, it seemsto me that child

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!