Language, Experience, and Imagination: The Invention and Evolution of Language
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Brian Boyd
Abstract
Ever since Chomsky, language has been considered primarily as an individual cognitive capacity. Even linguists who reject Chomsky's hypotheses accept this assumption. Daniel Dor proposes instead that language is a socially invented communication technology. It differs from all other animal communication systems, including human nonverbal communication, in that it can instruct the imaginations of others about things not shared with the speaker in the here and now. Dor's proposal solves the problem of the evolution of language, assigns a key role to individual differences in language evolution, change, diversity, acquisition, and use, unifies the many divided branches of linguistics, and solves or points toward solutions in many central areas of the subject, from semantics and syntax to pragmatics and the relation between language and thought. It promises not only to change the face of the language sciences, but also to have profound implications for anthropology, biology, cultural studies, literary studies, philosophy, politics, and religion, and for our understanding of human experience.
© 2017 Academic Studies Press
Articles in the same Issue
- Back Matter
- Front Matter
- ARTICLES
- The Appeal of the Primal Leader: Human Evolution and Donald J. Trump
- Drawings of Representational Images by Upper Paleolithic Humans and their Absence in Neanderthals Reflect Historical Differences in Hunting Wary Game
- Blues for a Blue Planet: Narratives of Climate Change and the Anthropocene in Nonfiction Books
- Closely Observed Animals, Hunter-Gatherers, and Visual Imagery in Upper Paleolithic Art
- Movement is the Song of the Body: Reflections on the Evolution of Rhythm and Music and its Possible Significance for the Treatment of Parkinson's Disease
- REVIEW ESSAYS
- Imagination, the Junkyard of the Mind
- Contemporary Evolutionary Aesthetics: The View from the Humanities (and Humanists)
- Language, Experience, and Imagination: The Invention and Evolution of Language
- An Old Subject's Great Escape from Recent Disciplinary Boundaries
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Aunger, Robert, and Valerie Curtis. 2015. Gaining Control: How Human Behavior Evolved.
- Byrne, Richard W. 2016. Evolving Insight: How It Is We Can Think about Why Things Happen.
- Gintis, Herbert. 2017. Individuality and Entanglement: The Moral and Material Bases of Social Life.
- Ione, Amy. 2016. Art and the Brain: Plasticity, Embodiment, and the Unclosed Circle.
- Jaén, Isabel, and Julien Jacques Simon (eds.). 2016. Cognitive Approaches to Early Modern Spanish Literature.
- Lewens, Tim. 2015. The Biological Foundations of Bioethics.
- Schrage-Früh, Michaela. 2016. Philosophy, Dreaming, and the Literary Imagination.
- Livingstone Smith, David (ed.). 2017. How Biology Shapes Philosophy: New Foundations for Naturalism.
- Turchin, Peter. 2016. Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth.
- Contributors
Articles in the same Issue
- Back Matter
- Front Matter
- ARTICLES
- The Appeal of the Primal Leader: Human Evolution and Donald J. Trump
- Drawings of Representational Images by Upper Paleolithic Humans and their Absence in Neanderthals Reflect Historical Differences in Hunting Wary Game
- Blues for a Blue Planet: Narratives of Climate Change and the Anthropocene in Nonfiction Books
- Closely Observed Animals, Hunter-Gatherers, and Visual Imagery in Upper Paleolithic Art
- Movement is the Song of the Body: Reflections on the Evolution of Rhythm and Music and its Possible Significance for the Treatment of Parkinson's Disease
- REVIEW ESSAYS
- Imagination, the Junkyard of the Mind
- Contemporary Evolutionary Aesthetics: The View from the Humanities (and Humanists)
- Language, Experience, and Imagination: The Invention and Evolution of Language
- An Old Subject's Great Escape from Recent Disciplinary Boundaries
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Aunger, Robert, and Valerie Curtis. 2015. Gaining Control: How Human Behavior Evolved.
- Byrne, Richard W. 2016. Evolving Insight: How It Is We Can Think about Why Things Happen.
- Gintis, Herbert. 2017. Individuality and Entanglement: The Moral and Material Bases of Social Life.
- Ione, Amy. 2016. Art and the Brain: Plasticity, Embodiment, and the Unclosed Circle.
- Jaén, Isabel, and Julien Jacques Simon (eds.). 2016. Cognitive Approaches to Early Modern Spanish Literature.
- Lewens, Tim. 2015. The Biological Foundations of Bioethics.
- Schrage-Früh, Michaela. 2016. Philosophy, Dreaming, and the Literary Imagination.
- Livingstone Smith, David (ed.). 2017. How Biology Shapes Philosophy: New Foundations for Naturalism.
- Turchin, Peter. 2016. Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth.
- Contributors
