Re: Do Children Learn Languages at Different Rates?


Ar an seachtú lá de mí Eanair, scríobh Peter T. Daniels:

> > >> It might mean that there are some languages that children find
> > >> easier to learn than others.
> > >
> > > In that case, why haven't all languages evolved to be like Turkish?
> > > (Or, more to the point, why would languages have evolved away from
> > > the Turkish pattern?)
> >
> > Is this a test? :-)
>
> It's a reductio ad absurdum. You assume something contrary to fact,
> discover that it leads to nonsense, so the initial assumption was false.

It leads to nonsense if you assume that there is a good reason for Darwinian
selection in favour of languages slightly more easily acquired in
childhood. Which assumption is shaky at best; a tribe becoming more
effective as a group, in combat, say, because its two-year-olds better
understand orders and can express themselves? Really!

> I.e., we've reasoned to the understanding that no languages are easier
> to learn natively than others.
>
> > Maybe ease of acquisition isn't a major consideration in linguistic
> > change. Maybe "ease of acquisition" isn't even a factor in it at all.
> >
> > Also, the differences in child acquisition rates (assuming they really
> > exist) between languages really don't appear to be all that important.
> > Slobin says by 4 or 5 years, all children are basically speaking their
> > native languages. So what difference would it make from the standpoint
> > of "evolution" if a Turkish kid is grammatically fluent a few months
> > earlier than a Russian child or an American?

--
I AM IN JAIL AND ALLOWED SEND ONLY ONE CABLE SINCE WAS ARRESTED WHILE
MEASURING FIFTEEN FOOT WALL OUTSIDE PALACE AND HAVE JUST FINISHED COUNTING
THIRTY EIGHT THOUSAND FIVE HUNDERED TWENTY TWO NAMES WHOS WHO IN MIDEAST.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Zen and...Math??
    ... contradiction. ... The same thing happens with the famous card trick, with one side of the card ... To me it is nonsense, since it leads to a contradiction either way. ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Not good at it yet.
    ... >>>A species practicing a recently acquired skill will not do it well. ... >>>languages and think rationally is new. ... >>>why most people readily believe nonsense. ... the use of language per se and cognition are separate notions. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Do Children Learn Languages at Different Rates?
    ... >> discover that it leads to nonsense, so the initial assumption was false. ... > It leads to nonsense if you assume that there is a good reason for Darwinian ... The selection was between ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Roberts the "physicist".
    ... > <snip all the nonsense> ... > And just what leads you to believe that the speed of light has to be ... > different in opposite directions in empty space? ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Connes & Marcolli paper on renormalization
    ... It does not mean that the minefield has ceased to exist. ... physical theories. ... > leads one there, then one has no choice other that to accept it, and if this ... > leads to nonsense then one has to accept that that something is ...
    (sci.physics.research)