Read the summary and the most important questions on The Study of Language | 9781107044197 | George Yule

• 1 The origins of language

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• When did written language develop? And spoken language?

  It is estimated that spoken language was developed between 100.00 and 50.000 years ago and written language around 5.000 years ago.

• 1.1 The divine source

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• Describe the experiment reported by Herodotus, performed by the Pharao.

  Two children were left alone for the first two years of their lives with a mute shepherd and goats, and after two years they made a sound similar to that of a goat (be). The pharao believed it to be Phrygian, meaning bread.

• Describe the experiment conducted by King James.

  He conducted a similar experiment in 1500, however the children were reported to start speaking Hebrew. Confirming James' belief that Hebrew was spoken in the garden of Eden.

• Describe the experiment conducted by Mogul emperor Akbar the Great.

  He arranged for newborn babies to be raised in silence, they did not show any sign of language. This is the outcome seen more commonly with children raised in silence.

• Describe the divine source.

  In most religions, there appears to be a divine source who provides humans with language. There is no unambiguous answer to what the original God-given language is, since there are so many different religions. If humans did receive language from a Divine source, we would not be able to recreate that.

• 1.2 The natural sound source

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• Describe the bow-wow theory.

  This is the theory that ancient man names objects after the sound that the object makes. The human auditory system is already functioning before birth, making it possible to make connections between sounds and the thing producing that sound. Therefor the theory goes that early humans developed language by mimicking the soundsource.

• What is a flaw in the bow-wow theory?

  Though many words are onomatopoeic, it is hard to believe that abstract ideas and silent objects are could have been referred to in a language that simply echoed natural sounds. We might also be rather skeptical about a view that seems to assume that a language is only a set of words used as "names" for things.

• What is the pooh-pooh theory?

  A different name by Jesperson for the bow-wow theory, but focuses on the idea that humans also made instinctive sounds connected to emotional circumstances.

• What is a flaw in the pooh pooh theory?

  Interjections caused by emotions (ah!, Yuck!) are made on an intake of breath. This is not seen in normal speech, where words are spoken while exhaling. Interjections are not used in language.

• 1.3 The social interaction source

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• Describe the yo-he-ho theory.

  The theory is based on the fact that people had to do physically strenuous activities in cooperation with others.  The sounds they used would have been from these activities and communication to function as a unit. The appeal of this proposal is that it places the development of human language in a social context.