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basic communication is not language. The jury is not out, I'm not going to repeat the facts but it is pretty clear to ANY linguist that Koko and all of the anim

basic communication is not language. The jury is not out, I'm not going to repeat the facts but it is pretty clear to ANY linguist that Koko and all of the animal kingdom do not have language. CHOMSKY: That’s about like saying that Olympic high jumpers fly better than young birds who’ve just come out of the egg — or than most chickens. These are not serious comparisons. For whatever reason, the study of human higher mental faculties is pervaded by a curious form of irrationality, foreign to the sciences.

coldtea 8y ago
>basic communication is not language. That's an statement based on arbitrary (and vague) definitions of the (already vague) words "communication" and "language". It also presupposes what it should try to prove: that Koko was only capable of "basic communication". (Not to mention the quality of our general understanding of language, which is primitive in itself, as is our understanding of how we, and even more so how animals, think). >CHOMSKY: That’s about like saying that Olympic high jumpers fly better than young birds who’ve just come out of the egg — or than most chickens. These are not serious comparisons. For whatever reason, the study of human higher mental faculties is pervaded by a curious form of irrationality, foreign to the sciences. Well, Chomsky wouldn't be the best example against irrationality. He has his closely held beliefs he touts whether they pan out or not. And I'm not even taking about his politics, rather his concept of brains "hardwire" grammar center...