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Tomasello says: "...[language acquisition is] imitative learning, plain and simple" (145). Surely he cannot mean that language is purely social, with no biological influence? It seems like language can be greatly (or at least marginally) affected by genetics and cognitive patterns and tendencies.
"Very little is known about how young children abstract or schematize across verb island constructions and create more abstract, productive, and adult-like conversations" (147). I would hypothesize that language is used and understood through a matrix of relational dichotomies, and more advanced/complex conversations can be created as an individual's matrix becomes larger.
Tomasello comments on the relationship between language and cognition. Has there been studies done on the similarities and differences in cognitive patterns and capacities between human language-users and humans who never learned a language? What conclusions, if any, were drawn?
Mental Models of Purpose of College
2 years ago
Has there been a human that never learned language? Or at least some type of language, even if untraditional?
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