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From: wcalvin@well.UUCP (William Calvin)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Why can't my cat talk?
Message-ID: <4337@well.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Oct-87 00:08:09 EST
Article-I.D.: well.4337
Posted: Thu Oct 29 00:08:09 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Nov-87 03:22:24 EST
References: <11967@decwrl.DEC.COM> <12400006@iuvax>
Reply-To: wcalvin@well.UUCP (William Calvin)
Organization: University of Washington
Lines: 14


> humans are 'pre-equipped" for language, e.g., vocal tract specializations

What's special about human language beyond primate language isn't the
mellifluorus quality of our sounds -- it is our ability to string together
individual sounds (phonemes, etc.) into a meaningful order.  Human left
brains are specialized for handling sequencing problems like hand movements,
and that has probably made left brain a natural home for our word-order-ruled
language.
		William H. Calvin
		University of Washington NJ-15, Seattle WA 98195
		  wcalvin@well.uucp
P.S.  I have an article on this topic coming out in the November 5 issue
of NATURE, entitled "The brain as a Darwin Machine".