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Neuroscience & Karma
5. Language Universals
Psycholinguists theorize that very deep and restrictive principles that determine the nature of human language are rooted in the human mind. These principles account for the creative aspect of language enabling human beings to continually compose new sentences instead of repeating a fixed number of phrases. The human brain is genetically programmed for language development. Thus learning a language means that maturing parts of the brain enable children to recognize basic regularities in the speech they hear around them. These regularities are language universals. But expecting a child to learn a language without the experience of talking to others is like trying to start a car without switching on the ignition.
The most important universal feature of all is the creativity or productivity of language. The fact that we can construct and understand an indefinitely large number of messages is the basis of the freedom of the individual to be different from others. This freedom is in turn the basis of the great adaptability of humans and of their cultures. 6. The Origin of Language
If tbere are universal features in human language, it seems likely that it arose once only, within a single population, or at least that one system has outlived all the others. Some people suggest that human language first became possible as a result of adopting the upright posture, perhaps as much as 10 million years ago.
Since it is now shown that part of the basis of human speech is inherited in the DNA, there must have been evolution of it by gradual natural selection.
