Re: virus: Sign memes & Chomsky

Corey A. Cook (COOKCORE@ESUVM.EMPORIA.EDU)
Tue, 08 Apr 97 08:40:30 CT


Tony gave a discription of a television show about deaf children in
Nicaragua, left orphaned by a revolution. One of the things that
the show asserted was that children instinctivly know grammar rules.
Unfortunatly, I can't unconditionally accept that conclusion without
more data. Another model that the data given fits is that, when
forced to create a new language, children also create new grammar rules.

Another thing that the show seemed to assert was that there are universal
grammar rules and syntactic structures. It doesn't seem that way to
me. It seems that each language has it's own grammar rules, developed
to fit the situation that existed when that language was invented. That
would explain why you can say things in one language that you just can't say
in another: one culture has that situation, another doesn't.

This just reinforces my desire for a new language since the old ones can't
express the ideas that we have now, because they didn't have the situations
we have now.

Corey A. Cook
cookcore@esuvm.emporia.edu

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* The One Universal Truth: *
* Sometimes, you're wrong. *
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