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Progressive Thinkers as of 12/1/2022
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Language may exhibit three distinct features or three distinct structural components or have arisen from three distinct sources, or is in the developmental stage of developing such a distinction. Does language have a "three" code like DNA or three lobes of inter-activity, or two sections, or a five count structure under-which is a two-part (thumb) and three-part (finger) skeletal framework? Or is the usage of the word "organ" applied to language a distraction from a truer character model best aligned with a notion of a three-part dominant particle physics arrangement, or three-part thoroughbred racing venue, or a three-medal Olympics observance, or a three-divisioned Earth (core-mantle-crust) or some measure of binary to be alternative labeled a dichotomy, duality, dyad or pattern-of-two? Or perhaps one prefers to use an all-encompassing model where the prefix "uni" is ascribed such as universe, unicycle, united, etc? If we are going to apply some idea as an analogy in the hope of gaining some further insight, then let us use such an analogy, a metaphor in a sense which takes it out of the purely philosophical and moves it closer to some experimental tangibility.
In one reference to a "language organ", the authors cite what the describe as an "analytical triplet", which I do not argue against and want to provide it as a representative example of how cognitive activity assumes what may be described as a "grammar of number"" or "grammar of quantity" or perhaps better labeled as a "grammared number" or some other such illustrative reference where enumeration of language takes place and is a recurring phenomena that is not typically taken into consideration by those studying Language or Cognition; yet they invariably use such an organizing principle and thus can be counted as a recurring attribute of grammar... which is the use of enumeration. Grammar involves a use of enumeration which is symbolically conveyed. For example, if a word order is used and all word order involves three distinct characters, then assigning numbers to them can reference an order, though the values assigned to the numbers may not be those we typically assign to a serial description of enumeration. However, whether one counts as 1- 2- 3, or 3- 2- 1, or 3- 1- 2, or 2- 1 -3 or 2- 3- 1, does not alter the overall quantity. Whereas the quality may differ by way of interpretation of attendant imposition such as whether speaking of three apples as opposed to three lumps of coal, the overall quantitative remains though one may adopt the value system of using some mathematical operation according to some situational or social standard... in other words, attendant with the values one might alternate inter relational operations such as adding, subtracting, fractionating, dividing, multiplying, exclusion, etc...
The Analytical Triplet: The Human Language Faculty as an Organ by Stephen R. Anderson (Dept. of Linguistics, Yale University) & David W. Lightfoot, (Dept. of Linguistics, University of Maryland)
A grammar, for us, is a psychological entity, part of the psychological state of somebody who knows a language. For any aspect of linguistic knowledge, three intimately related items are included in a full account of this state.
- First, there is a formal and explicit characterization of what a mature speaker knows; this is the grammar, which is part of that speaker's phenotype. Since the grammar is represented in the mind/brain, it must be a finite system, which can related sound and meaning for an infinite number of sentences.
- Second, also specified are the relevant principles and parameters common to the species and part of the initial state of the organism; these principles and parameters make up part of the theory of grammar or Universal Grammar, and the belong to the genotype.
- The third item is the trigger experience, which varies from person to person and consists of an unorganized and fairly haphazard set of utterances, of the kind that any child hears (the notion of a trigger is from Ethologists' work on the emergence of behavioral patterns in young animals.) The universal theory of grammar and the variable trigger together form the basis for attaining a grammar; grammars are attained on the basis of a certain trigger and the genotype.
The explanatory schema, using general biological terminology can be seen in (a) and the corresponding linguistic terms in (b). The triggering experience causes the genotype to develop into a phenotype; exposure to a range of utterances from, say, English allows the UG capacity to develop into a particular mature grammar. One may think of the theory of grammar as making available a set of choices; the choices are taken in the light of the trigger experience of the Primary Linguistic Data ("PLD"), and a grammar emerges when the relevant options are resolved. A child develops a grammar by setting the open parameters of UG in the light of her particular experience.
- Linguistic triggering experience (genotype → phenotype)
- Primary Linguistic Data (Universal Grammar → grammar)
Each of the items in the triplet — trigger, UG, and grammar — must meet various demands. The trigger or PLD must consist only of the kinds of things that children routinely experience and includes only simple structures. The theory of grammar or UG is the one constant and must hold universally such that any person's grammar can be attained on the basis of naturally available trigger experiences. The mature grammar must define an infinite number of expression as well-formed, and for each of these it must specify at least the sound and the meaning. A description always involves these three items and they are closely related; changing a claim about one of the items usually involves changing claims about the other two.
In this rather dispersed account of language insights should be a word about those individuals brought up in the wild or had some sort of forced isolation on them, whereby they did not develop what most might claim to be an adequate facility for the use of language. Sometimes labeled as feral children, it has been concluded that there appears to be a critical period (Critical Period Hypothesis) in which one or more languages can be learned, but that after this period, the learning of a 2nd language in a single language environment is not similarly advantaged. In other words, the Critical Language Period has a singular and not a double and/or triple (or more) segments as suggested would be the case by biological, physiological and psychological constructs of form and function with two and/or three... or more divisions. This idea has been routinely correlated with the research of Konrad Lorenz who defined a learning period labeled "imprinting":
Although imprinting was first studied by the Englishman Douglas Spalding in the 19th century, Konrad Lorenz is usually, and rightly, credited with having been the first not only to experiment on the phenomenon but also to study its wider implications. Lorenz found that a young duckling or gosling learns to follow the first conspicuous, moving object it sees within the first few days after hatching. In natural circumstances, this object would be the mother bird; but Lorenz discovered that he himself could serve as an adequate substitute, and that a young bird is apparently equally ready to follow a model of another species or a bright red ball. Lorenz also found that such imprinting affected not only the following response of the infant but also many aspects of the young bird's later behaviour, including its sexual preferences as an adult.
Imprinting, like song learning, involves a sensitive period during which the young animal must be exposed to a model, and the learning that occurs at this time may not affect behaviour until some later date. In other words, one can distinguish between a process of perceptual or observational learning, when the young animal is learning to identify the defining characteristics of the other animal or object to which it is exposed, and the way in which this observational learning later affects behaviour. In the case of song learning, observation establishes a template that the bird then learns to match. In the case of imprinting, observation establishes, in Lorenz' phrase, a model of a companion, to which the animal subsequently directs a variety of patterns of social behaviour. ("animal learning." Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013.)
Let us take a look at the Biblical reference of John 1:1 which states (in a three-part phrase):
- "In the beginning was the word."
- "The word was with god."
- "The word was god."
Let us also view it as a reference used by an unacknowledged language theorist in the past, whereby we have an account which provides us with an indication about the development of language. While it may not explicitly provide us with a date where words began or the "word" which references one or more ideas viewed as religion, it does give some indication of how speech (at least in this manner) was received. However, a profound reception of the spoken word is seen even today such as when we hear someone singing or speaking of an idea which represents a mood or idea shared by a single listener or multiple listeners. We can even provide some indication of how people viewed and labeled certain speakers as being "golden-tongued" (Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Chivalry or Legends of the King Arthur):
Myvyrian Archaeology cites King Arthur as saying:
- I have three heroes in battle:
- Mael the tall
- Llyr, with his army
- Caradoc, pillar of Wales
- He also names 3 Bards of Britain:
- Merlin Ambrose
- Merlin the son of Morfyn, called also Merlin the Wild
- Taliesin, chief of the bards
- 3 golden-tongued knights:
- Gawain, son of Gwyar
- Drydvas, son of Tryphin
- Eliwlod, son of Madag, and Uther
- 3 honorable feasts of Britain:
- Feast of Caswallaun, after repelling Julius Caesar from the isle
- Feast of Aurelius Ambrosius, after he conquered the Saxons
- Feast of King Arthur, at Carleon upon Usk
The above series of triads are followed by a reference which expresses a pattern-of-two in the form of a dichotomy: "Guenever, the daughter of Laodegan the giant, Bad when little, worse when great."
When speaking of raw or primitive sounds emitting some power, the following references provide a suggestion to this idea (Examples from: BTR poster column 6).
The frequent usage of three-lettered or 3-sounds or 3-part utterances used for meditation harkens back to the babbling stage of infancy out of which the infant acquires an "ascendancy" to a higher state of consciousness. One must wonder if this period in infancy leaves an indelible mark on the human psyche whereby adults in different contexts and with different languages or symbology, engage in some representative type of "babbling" (repetition) of vocalization (that is if they can speak) which is several cases propels them to a higher state of consciousness such as in the case of achieving some social status of recognition out of which they reach some socially constructed "heaven on earth" like that which living in a Mansion or working in Congress, or teaching at a University, or getting a job or getting married, or having a baby, getting a divorce, etc., might well be felt has a higher ascendancy of one's former self.
In accounting for the wide-spread usage of Mediative chants, songs, and other behavior, some of which use a distinct pattern-of-three such as in the case of "Om" (A-U-M) let us make note of the following:
The fact that infants do engage in a "developmental mile-stone stage" of repetitive (utterance) babbling that is followed by an ascendancy into a higher consciousness by way of a natural maturational growth process, may in fact leave an indelible mark on the developing (and impressionable/vulnerable) human mind which glimpses its origination as one in which it is surrounded by a "cloud or shroud" and retains the image as an 'echo', as a shadow, as an indistinct hint, as a presence, as clue which is highly suggestive to a curious mind and that acts like a reverberation of (consistent or intermittent) concentric (uni-centric? bi-centric? tri-centric?) waves (undulations) which is sought after in adult life in multiple formulas; one of which is the tendency of some to advance a view involving the notion of "vibrations" or "subtle energies" or simply described as being "something there"... at the territorial tip of one's consciousness domain which they are compelled to seek out.
In addition, this transitional activity of moving into a different "plane" of consciousness after infancy was preceded by the long-held view by some that birth itself was a process of acquiring a higher consciousness by way of a tunnel with a light at the end of it; suggestive of the birth canal and the presumed birth trauma where the body must quickly adapt itself to life outside the womb; which one can easily view as an analogy to the concept of acquiring a higher consciousness. Hence, these two episodes constitute a "1st- and 2nd- staging event" and the search for a 3rd in waking life makes up the trio that apparently pervades so many inclinations, aspirations and sought-for accomplishments.
Hence, the three:
- Singular (but repetitive) vocalization (wailing/breath-gasping) event of the birthing cry.
- Dual repetitive (consonant/vowel) utterances of infant babbling.
- Triple-patterned repetitive vocalizations used as meditative chants.
It has been indicated that the neophyte of the Ephesian mysteries had to grasp the meaning of the logos (word), that this world- creating Word revealed itself concretely through its 3-fold intonation of the vowels: I-O-A, vowels which were the subject of meditation.
Om, in Hinduism and other religions chiefly of India, a sacred syllable that is considered to be the greatest of all the mantras, or sacred formulas. The symbol Om is composed of the three sounds a-u-m (in Sanskrit, the vowels a and u coalesce to become o), which represent several important triads:
- The three worlds of earth, atmosphere, and heaven.
- The three major Hindu gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.
- The three sacred Vedic scriptures, Rg, Yajur, and Soma.
Thus Om mystically embodies the essence of the entire universe. It is uttered at the beginning and end of Hindu prayers, chants, and meditations and is freely used in Buddhist and Jaina ritual also. From the 6th century, the written symbol designating the sound is used to mark the beginning of a text in a manuscript or an inscription. The syllable is discussed in a number of the Upanishads, which are the texts of philosophical speculation, and it forms the entire subject matter of one, the Mandukya. It is used in the practice of Yoga and is related to techniques of auditory meditation. In the Puranas the syllable is put to sectarian use; thus the Saiva mark the lingam, or sign of Siva, with the symbol for Om, whereas the Vaishnava identify the three sounds as referring to a trinity composed of Vishnu, his wife Sri, and the worshiper. ("Om." Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013.)
A- O- U vowel reference): Everywhere, unaccented vowels have had a different history from accented, and in some languages they have so weakened as to disappear altogether in certain positions. At the end of a word, for instance, even -a, the most sonorous of the vowels, has weakened to a neutral vowel in Romanian, Portuguese, and some Catalan and Rhaetian dialects—in some French dialects it is still pronounced as a neutral vowel sound (such as the second vowel in English alphabet), but it has been lost completely in the standard language. Final -o, from Latin -o- or u(, was lost very early in French, Occitan, Catalan, and Rhaetian and remains only before an article following the word in Romanian; in Portuguese and Romanian it is closed to a /u/ (pronounced as the u in English lunar). Final -e is even more evanescent, regularly remaining as a full vowel only in parts of central and southern Italy and Sardinia. ("Romance languages." Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013.)
Note: Both A-U-M (OM) and Amen (at the end of prayers) is said (by me) to have originated from the ancient Egyptian custom of referencing the Sun god Amon-ra. Where the "Amon" is clearly too much of a coincidental spelling to be anything but a transacted correlate changing hands by different cultural speakers. In addition, in the shape of a Ram and colored blue to indicate invisibility, we see the makings of the notion about an invisible god and one as a spiritual god, that when connected to a trinity can easily be noted as a "holy spirit". A blue sky where the idea of a heaven is and filled sometimes with whispy clouds (and sometimes violent characteristics such as storm materials), suggests the imagery of an idea which later became fashioned in later times to ideas involving multiple religious views, not least of which was the presence of triangle, white alibaster coated pyramids reflecting the Sun and twinkling stars, may well have given rise to the notion of a triangle (twinkling lights) Christmas tree adopted by the Germans within the confines of a forest habitation where triangular pine trees were plentiful, and could easily be adopted as a symbolic representation of earlier ideas handed down through generations and peoples through trading centers. (See for example allusions to this idea: Sunrays page 1).
Amon's influence was, in addition, closely linked to the political well-being of Egypt. During the Hyksos domination (c. 1630–c. 1523 BCE), the princes of Thebes sustained his worship. Following the Theban victory over the Hyksos and the creation of an empire, Amon's stature and the wealth of his temples grew. In the late 18th dynasty Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV) directed his religious reform against the traditional cult of Amon, but he was unable to convert people from their belief in Amon and the other gods, and, under Tutankhamen, Ay, and Horemheb (1332–1292 BCE), Amon was gradually restored as the god of the empire and patron of the pharaoh.
H.O.B. note: The following sentence is a reference which hints at the idea of the Christian Trinity idea known today as "3 persons in 1 god".>
In the New Kingdom, religious speculation among Amon's priests led to the concept of Amon as part of a triad (with Ptah and Re) or as a single god of whom all the other gods, even Ptah and Re, were manifestations. Under the sacerdotal state ruled by the priests of Amon at Thebes (c. 1075–c. 950 BCE), Amon evolved into a universal god who intervened through oracles in many affairs of state.
The succeeding 22nd and 23rd dynasties, the invasion of Egypt by Assyria (671–c. 663 BCE), and the sack of Thebes (c. 663 BCE) did not reduce the stature of the cult, which had acquired a second main centre at Tanis in the Nile River delta. Moreover, the worship of Amon had become established among the inhabitants of Kush in the Sudan, who were accepted by Egyptian worshippers of Amon when they invaded Egypt and ruled as the 25th dynasty (715–664 BCE). From this period onward, resistance to foreign occupation of Egypt was strongest in Thebes. Amon's cult spread to the oases, especially Siwa in Egypt's western desert, where Amon was linked with Jupiter. Alexander the Great won acceptance as pharaoh by consulting the oracle at Siwa, and he also rebuilt the sanctuary of Amon's temple at Luxor. The early Ptolemaic rulers contained Egyptian nationalism by supporting the temples, but, starting with Ptolemy IV Philopator in 207 BCE, nationalistic rebellions in Upper Egypt erupted. During the revolt of 88–85 BCE, Ptolemy IX Soter II sacked Thebes, dealing Amon's cult a severe blow. In 27 BCE a strong earthquake devastated the Theban temples, while in the Greco-Roman world the cult of Isis and Osiris gradually displaced that of Amon. ("Amon." Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013.)
The later biblical tradition of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1–9) exemplifies three aspects of early thought about language:
- Divine interest in and control over its use and development
- A recognition of the power it gives to humans in relation to their environment
- An explanation of linguistic diversity
... (and) of the fact that people in adjacent communities speak different and mutually unintelligible languages, together with a survey of the various speech communities of the world known at the time to the Hebrews.
The origin of language has never failed to provide a subject for speculation, and its inaccessibility adds to its fascination. Informed investigations of the probable conditions under which language might have originated and developed are seen in the late 18th-century essay of the German philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder, "Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache" ("Essay on the Origin of Language"), and in numerous other treatments. But people have tried to go farther, to discover or to reconstruct something like the actual forms and structure of the first language. This lies forever beyond the reach of science, in that spoken language in some form is almost certainly coeval with Homo sapiens. The earliest records of written language, the only linguistic fossils humanity can hope to have, go back no more than 4,000 to 5,000 years. Attempts to derive human speech from imitations of the cries of animals and birds or from mere ejaculations of joy and grief, as if onomatopoeia were the essence of language, were ridiculed for their inadequacy by the Oxford philologist F. Max Müller in the 19th century and have been given nicknames such as "bow-wow" and "pooh-pooh" theories.
On several occasions attempts have been made to identify one particular existing language as representing the original or oldest tongue of humankind, but, in fact, the universal process of linguistic change rules out any such hopes from the start. The Greek historian Herodotus told a (possibly satirical) story in which King Psamtik I of Egypt (reigned 664–610 BCE) caused a child to be brought up without ever hearing a word spoken in his presence. On one occasion it ran up to its guardian as he brought it some bread, calling out "bekos, bekos"; this, being said to be the Phrygian word for bread, proved that Phrygian was the oldest language. The naiveté and absurdity of such an account have not prevented the repetition of this experiment elsewhere at other times.
When people have begun to reflect on language, its relation to thinking becomes a central concern. Several cultures have independently viewed the main function of language as the expression of thought. Ancient Indian grammarians speak of the soul apprehending things with the intellect and inspiring the mind with a desire to speak, and in the Greek intellectual tradition Aristotle declared, "Speech is the representation of the experiences of the mind" (On Interpretation). Such an attitude passed into Latin theory and thence into medieval doctrine. Medieval grammarians envisaged three stages in the speaking process:
- Things in the world exhibit properties;
- These properties are understood by the minds of humans;
- In the manner in which they have been understood, so they are communicated to others by the resources of language.
Rationalist writers on language in the 17th century gave essentially a similar account: speaking is expressing thoughts by signs invented for the purpose, and words of different classes (the different parts of speech) came into being to correspond to the different aspects of thinking.
To allow for the full range of language used by speakers, more comprehensive definitions of language have been proposed in recent years on the lines of the second one quoted above (i.e., "A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates").
Language is species-specific to human beings. Other members of the animal kingdom have the ability to communicate, through vocal noises or by other means, but the most important single feature characterizing human language (that is, every individual language), against every known mode of animal communication, is its infinite productivity and creativity. Human beings are unrestricted in what they can talk about; no area of experience is accepted as necessarily incommunicable, though it may be necessary to adapt one's language in order to cope with new discoveries or new modes of thought.
Animal communication systems are by contrast very tightly circumscribed in what may be communicated. Indeed, displaced reference, the ability to communicate about things outside immediate temporal and spatial contiguity, which is fundamental to speech, is found elsewhere only in the so-called language of bees. Bees are able, by carrying out various conventionalized movements (referred to as bee dances) in or near the hive, to indicate to others the locations and strengths of nectar sources. But nectar sources are the only known theme of this communication system. Surprisingly, however, this system, nearest to human language in function, belongs to a species remote from man in the animal kingdom and is achieved by very different physiological activities from those involved in speech. On the other hand, the animal performance superficially most like human speech, the mimicry of parrots and of some other birds that have been kept in the company of humans, is wholly derivative and serves no independent communicative function. Humankind's nearest relatives among the primates, though possessing a vocal physiology similar to that of humans, have not developed anything like a spoken language. Attempts to teach sign language to chimpanzees and other apes through imitation have achieved limited success, though the interpretation of the significance of ape signing ability remains controversial. ("language." Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013.)
Some perspectives on language, culled from: 3s Poster column 3
3 rulers are noted for carrying out experiments (by isolating children from all spoken language influences) to determine which language would be spoken first, and hence, identify the first language:
- Egyptian Pharaoh Psammetichus (664 - 610 B.C.)
- The Greek historian Herodotus conveyed an anecdote about Psamtik in the second volume of his Histories (2.2). During his visit to Egypt, Herodotus heard that Psammetichus ("Psamtik") sought to discover the origin of language by conducting an experiment with two children. Allegedly he gave two newborn babies to a shepherd, with the instructions that no one should speak to them, but that the shepherd should feed and care for them while listening to determine their first words. The hypothesis was that the first word would be uttered in the root language of all people. When one of the children cried "βεkóç" (bekós) with outstretched arms, the shepherd reported this to Psammetichus, who concluded that the word was Phrygian because that was the sound of the Phrygian word for "bread". Thus, they concluded that the Phrygians were an older people than the Egyptians, and that Phrygian was the original language of men. There are no other extant sources to verify this story.
- James IV of Scotland (A.D.1473 - 1513)
- James IV allegedly conducted a language deprivation experiment[84] in which two children were sent to be raised by a mute woman alone on the island of Inchkeith, to determine if language was learned or innate.
- Roman Emperor Fredrick II of Hohenstaufen (A.D. 1200's)
- He was also alleged to have carried out a number of experiments on people. These experiments were recorded by the monk Salimbene di Adam in his Chronicles. Among the experiments were shutting a prisoner up in a cask to see if the soul could be observed escaping through a hole in the cask when the prisoner died; feeding two prisoners, having sent one out to hunt and the other to bed and then having them disembowelled to see which had digested his meal better; imprisoning children and then denying them any human contact to see if they would develop a natural language.
In the language deprivation experiment young infants were raised without human interaction in an attempt to determine if there was a natural language that they might demonstrate once their voices matured. It is claimed he was seeking to discover what language would have been imparted unto Adam and Eve by God. In his Chronicles Salimbene wrote that Frederick bade "foster-mothers and nurses to suckle and bathe and wash the children, but in no ways to prattle or speak with them; for he would have learnt whether they would speak the Hebrew language (which had been the first), or Greek, or Latin, or Arabic, or perchance the tongue of their parents of whom they had been born. But he laboured in vain, for the children could not live without clappings of the hands, and gestures, and gladness of countenance, and blandishments".
3 Types of Languages (Isadore of Seville, 7th Century A.D.):
- All the Oriental nations jam tongue and words together in the throat, like Hebrews and Syrians.
- All the Mediterranean peoples push their enunciation forward to the palate, like the Greeks and the Asians.
- All the Occidentals break their words on the teeth, like the Italians and Spaniards.
The "Three Languages" story occurring in Fairy tales is said to be very old and exist in various versions in different cultures.
3 allophone (phonemic derivative) environments:
(1) At the end of a word (only oral vowels; no nasal vowels)
(2) Before nasal consonants (only nasalized vowels; no oral vowels)
(3) Before non-nasal consonants (only oral vowels; no nasalized vowels)
3 types of alphabet in use characterized by 3 different methods of indicating vowels:
- Greek, Latin, and so on - vowels indicated by separate signs
- Aramaic, Hebrew - Arabic, and so on - vowels indicated by separate diacritic marks
- Ethiopic, Indic - vowels indicated by diacritic marks attached to the sign or, very rarely, by internal modification.
3 subtle parts to one expression by the historian Francis Parkman (1823-1893):
- He who would do some great things in this short life must apply himself to work with such a concentration of force as,
- to idle spectators who live only to amuse themselves,
- looks like insanity.
3 subtle parts to analogy: Back to the Crib & Bottle though you call it Bar & Booze, get Drunk so you can Toddle and the unknowing will excuse. (I made this up decades ago by comparing the behavior of drinkers to babies. At one time in the 1960s there seemed to be a beer joint every other street or so... though not actually this many, but there were numerous of them.)
It is of interest to note that while we accept the idea language may be innate... or at least the capacity to acquire and use it, and that some children are born with some talent to rival that of an adult who took years to study and learn a given subject; yet we do not readily accept this ability for all subjects. For math... yes. For art... yes. For music... yes. But not for philosophy, not for linguists, not for this or another sport, not for cooking, not for reading, not for Astronomy, Chemistry, poker, shooting billiards and many other activities. While some activities are known to be expressed by the young, others are not... and because such occurrences have not taken place, or have taken place but a child is misunderstood, we therefore do not expect nor even want all adult activities described as being special... to be the province of some child... the reincarnated Dalai Lama notwithstanding.
The study of language is biased because it describes "sounds" or "sound patterns" and not patterns... patterns for which enumeration could be used to identify and label such sounds, even though researchers at some time in their study come around to using some model of enumeration to describe the basics of what they believe to be words and hence language. One of the ideas as to how, when, where, why and perhaps by whom language first came into being is described in terms of sounds heard in Nature which came to be imitated. Long ago this idea became known as the "Bow-Wow" theory of language acquisition. However, others though that language might possibly arise not by imitation, but by some internalized process which emerged such as urination or defecation, and came to be called the Pooh-Pooh theory of language. A third idea about language is that it developed as an imitative response not necessarily to a sound, but a rhythm such as bipedal walking or running which may have been accompanied by some initial sounds such as breathing, grunts, groans and the like due to some stress. The language theories designated as "Ding Dong" and "Yo-He-Ho" can be fitted together to provide an explanation for such an idea. However, let me provide the typical references to such old Language theories so the reader might better grasp that to which I am referring, and not think that I just made them up. I will cite several sources of the same ideas for comparative purposes:
The early bow-wow theory of language was first introduced by Max Müller, a philologist who was at a later stage criticized about his point of view (Sprinker 1980). Bow-wow theory postulates that the origin of language arose through "onomatopoeia," which, in simple words, is the imitation of sounds in nature (Moran and Gode 1986). Specifically, the sounds from animals were the most imitated from the environment. On the one hand, Thorndike (1943) was doubtful about the credibility of this theory as the beginning of language. On the other hand, recent studies support that being able to mimic sounds in the natural environment was of paramount importance in the evolution of language (Malle 2002). (Bow-Wow Demetra Themistocleous & Xenia Anastassiou-Hadjicharalambous, Jan. 2021)
Date of (series) Origination: Saturday, 14th March 2020... 6:11 AM
Date of Initial Posting (this page): 9th January 2023... 12:32 AM AST (Arizona Standard Time); Marana, AZ.