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From:  Judy Kegl
Date:  Tue Jun 9, 1998  1:14 pm
Subject:  Re: Younger Language?


Just a correction. The reference is to Derek Bickerton, not Dan Birketon.
There is an interesting other book by Deacon called Symbolic Species that
addresses some of these issues.
--Judy

>According to Birketon, he said that language was intended to represent
>the symbolic images in our minds, then the second level in the process
>of language's function is to stimulate communication.
>
>I think Dan(?) Birketon's point is very interesting because he
>argues that humans symbolize everything (like metalanguage) before
>the physical and more concrete forms develop which reflects upon
>our communication systems. So, hymophonys probably are the results
>of major and massive fusion of morphological and phonological changes,
>but the bottom line according to Birketon's Roots of Language, it does
>not matter because we still can separate them among our ability to
>symbolize and distinguish them.
>
>a thought for the day,
>Erin

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