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On the evolution of linguistics

Christine Kenneally's 2007 book The First Word is the subject of a series of columns in Lex Talk! by Norbert Cunningham. These are just highlights.

Meaningful study of language just beginning
September 21, 2009
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/search/article/790935

...Kenneally's book shows modern linguistics is a rapidly burgeoning field going off in several directions at once, and explains the significance of what's being learned or just being probed with no definitive answers yet. There is no shortage of work or questions to investigate, but the science is now, at last, clearly on a better footing. The new linguistics revolution dates only to 1990 and the really phenomenal growth in the field has only been in the last nine years...

Thinking carefully about language reveals insights
September 21st, 2009
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/search/article/798059

Things that are essential to having language
September 28th, 2009
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/805780
...Language isn't just words, it represents a whole 'suite' of physical traits and abilities coming together. Language doesn't exist without gestures (some suspect it started with gesture). You also need speech (and hearing) for language to arise. And structure: language puts words together in specific ways (innate things like alarm cries, which most animals have, aren't language). Language includes complex, abstract thought; thoughts within thoughts; thoughts dependent on shared knowledge etc. It also entails creating entirely new thoughts. ...

Full post as published by Building Rapport on September 28, 2009 (boomark / email).