The quote is below, and the book is the language instinct by steven pinker 1. Re

Question

The quote is below, and the book is the language instinct by steven pinker

1. Review the quote from The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin and discuss how he viewed language as an instinct. Given what you know about Darwin and many oppositions he faced, how ground-breaking were his observations? Do you agree with Darwin? Why? If not, why not?

"The conception of language as a kind of instinct was first articulated in 1871 by Darwin himself. In The Descent of Man he had to contend with language because its confinement to humans seemed to present a challenge to his theory. As in all matters, his observations are uncannily modern: As .. . one of the founders of the noble science of philology observes, language is an art, like brewing or baking; but writing would have been a better simile. It certainly is not a true instinct, for every language has to be learned. It differs, however, widely from all ordinary arts, for man has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children; while no child has an instinctive tendency to brew, bake, or write. Moreover, no philologist now supposes that any language has been deliberately invented; it has been slowly and unconsciously developed by many steps. Darwin concluded that language ability is "an instinctive tendency to acquire an art," a design that is not peculiar to humans but seen in other species such as song-learning birds."

Explanation / Answer

The ability to language according to Darwin is more instinctive than it’s learned as he brings out the example of children trying to speak through their babbling sound. In my point of view language is a skill that has to be learnt from the environment although the innate ability to learn remains with every person. Had Darwin seen someone who is lost in the forest as a child and never got into contact with people who talk but stayed with the animals such as Tarzan the story character, Darwin would have changed his mind-set. Anyone could be taught any language at any age and one can learn whatever language available in the environment and if one moves to another part of the world in their later life, they still learn the language spoken there. Other skills that Darwin speaks of such as brew, bake, or write will also become possible if the child is in that environment for over a period of time. There are children who do amazing tasks even at a very small age which is otherwise considered to be impossible for a child of that age.

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