4 ms·
A human raised without language does not invent it on their own.
by russdill 4y ago
A human raised without language does not invent it on their own.
- tialaramex 4y agoFor ethical reasons we can't do this as a controlled experiment but actually I believe the assumption is that humans not exposed to language will spontaneously produce a proto-language. A subsequent generation of humans exposed only to the proto-language would refine that into a full blown language with a proper grammar and so on. Profoundly deaf children in deprived areas with no exposure to whatever local sign language is dominant will sign spontaneously, and their parents, who have a language the child can't use, will learn rudimentary signs from the child. Again ethical considerations forbid experimenting on such children.