Pagel says that language is the product of the human`s need to communicate and ask for collaboration from the others members of the group, that is how language is a powerful social tool: “using language you can get what you want”.
He tells us how language evolved (only in our specie): “animals learn copying to others: that is a social learn”. According to that idea, chimps just copy some act over and over again: “what monkey see, monkey do”. And that is the biggest difference between chimps and humans: we can reason what act we want to imitate, we can use this advantage for individual benefits or for social benefits. Humanity prefers to work in team and that is how we control the nature and the world, but unfortunately many people chose the first option and that explain, for example: the Chilean’s inequalities.
The way we talk defines us as person: we belong to that group when we speak like they do, because we can communicate better with them. People recognize an English man just for the way he talks, I mean, language carries an identity. But somehow with the globalization that diversity is getting lost.
the language topic was really interesting, because you can think about if you are doing a thing because if you want to do it or if you are imitating...I can say if I do something, I do it because I think I can do something better than before...
ResponderEliminarI'm agree with you, language is a strong attribute of identity.
ResponderEliminarIs interesting how the lenguage develope and the changes that have in the time. And, I think is sad that millions of language disappear because other languages want to dominate the world. This is how people lose part of their identity and is forced by the system to learn other languages.
ResponderEliminarIt is very sad globailization has certainly helped English to become the main communication language indeed. We need to fight to preserve our identity and that of our ancestors.
ResponderEliminar