Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA17788 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 30 Apr 2002 20:20:02 +0100 Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 15:13:46 -0400 Subject: Re: teleology and language Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed From: Wade Smith <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: <3CCEE472.F1965380@pacbell.net> Message-Id: <64FB9420-5C6E-11D6-9DF0-003065A0F24C@harvard.edu> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.481) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Tuesday, April 30, 2002, at 02:37 , Bill Spight wrote:
> Are languages replicated? Yes. Do they vary over time? Yes.
> Are they, or their components, selected? Yes.
Are languages replicated? No. They are artifacts of
developmental processes and cultural environments. They are the
product of repetitive and cognitive processes, not replicated
ones. Languages are not birthed. They mutate in loco.
Do they vary over time? Perhaps, depending upon one's definition
of variance. But they are adaptations with fixed genetic
determinants and are produced with a set of bodily mechanisms,
such as the larynx and the tongue, that have arguably not
changed in over 60,000 years in our species.
Are they, or their components, selected? No. There is no attempt
to choose languages- they are environmentally contained and
offer no selected advantage to the organisms. Any human placed
into any languaged environment will learn the language of that
environment, without fail, for a normally developing individual.
And culture is likewise seen in both these evolving and
artifactual natures.
Point of view.
IMHO, both are valid, and neither proved.
- Wade
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