Language by Daniel L. Everett

Author:Daniel L. Everett [Everett, Daniel L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-90702-8
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 6 Face diagram of human vocal apparatus

What underlies our wonderful human voices is a jury-rigged collection of anatomical parts that we need for other things. In the 1980s MacGyver was a popular American television program about a resourceful secret agent who regularly extricated himself from dangerous and apparently hopeless situations by taking mundane objects from his surroundings and using them for purposes for which they were not originally designed – using an aerosol can to make a bomb, for example. The human vocal apparatus is like one of MacGyver’s devices, exploited not merely by some fictional adventurer but by evolution itself. Not one part of the vocal apparatus evolved primarily for language. Each part has a separate function. But out of these disparate parts has evolved a vocal apparatus for speech.

To speak we use our lips, teeth, tongues, nasal passages, vocal cords, and other body parts. The sound b, for example, is made by simultaneously blocking the flow of air from the lungs through the mouth by closing the lips and vibrating the vocal cords, parallel muscles that flank the opening to the trachea, the glottis. The sound p is identical to b except that with p the vocal cords (or folds) do not vibrate. The sound m is the same as b except that the air that originates in the lungs also passes through the nose (which is why when you have a cold and your nose is blocked up, ms sound like bs). In Figure 6 you can see the physical mechanisms that underlie all of our sounds.

Again, every part of the vocal apparatus has a non-speech-related function that is more basic from an evolutionary perspective than speech and that is found in other species of primates, such as the larynx. In order to produce language we exploit what our bodies and brains already have. Therefore it is not surprising that the neural mechanisms implicated in human language, as well as tongues, teeth, and the rest, such as the basal ganglia, are not only part of the endowment of modern human biology, but are found in many other animals as well. This is a simple consequence of the continuity of evolution by natural selection.

But, as seen earlier, there is one unique aspect of the human vocal apparatus that does seem to have evolved specifically for human speech: its shape. Let’s first look at how the vocal apparatus does its job, then we can discuss its novel shape.

One question worth asking is whether there is anything special about human speech or whether it is just composed of easy-to-make noises?2 Also, would other noises work just as well? Not really. For example, a possible alternative to human speech sounds is Morse code. The fastest speed a Morse code operator can achieve is about fifty words per minute. That is about 250 letters per minute. Morse code operators working this quickly, however, need to rest frequently and can barely remember what they have transcribed. But a hungover college student can

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.