Talk:Language (general)
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Workgroup category or categories | Linguistics Workgroup, Philosophy Workgroup, Anthropology Workgroup [Editors asked to check categories] |
Article status | Developing article: beyond a stub, but incomplete |
Underlinked article? | No |
Basic cleanup done? | Yes |
Checklist last edited by | John Stephenson 06:02, 14 May 2007 (CDT) Pat Palmer 14:48, 13 April 2007 (CDT) |
To learn how to fill out this checklist, please see CZ:The Article Checklist.
Talk:Language Archives |
Archive 1, 4-27-07: Talk:Language/Archive1 |
proposed refocus of this article
The Language article is currently heavily weighted towards natural language but I think that might change simply by moving some of that material out into a natural language subarticle and adding other categories. Absent objections, I may do that. I also would like to remove the {{Linguistics}} template, on grounds that this particular article is headed towards becoming cross-disciplinary, of interest in Computers, History, Philosophy etc. Pat Palmer 23:46, 13 May 2007 (CDT)
- I just did it already. Pat Palmer 00:18, 14 May 2007 (CDT)
- I don't know about removing the {{Linguistics}} template. Yes, this article is certainly getting cross-disciplinary (as it should), but the study of Language per se (including that beyond natural language) is the defining characteristic of linguistics as a discipline! (That would be akin to removing the Biology Workgroup from the Biology page because the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, and chemistry have a significant stake in the article.) Perhaps removing anthropology and philosophy as secondary workgroups is in order (and I say this as an anthropology editor, too) if we're trying to resist disproportionate influence of some disciplines over overs. But I worry that removing secondary workgroups would diminish the visibility of the article, which could reduce the contributions by a wider range of particularly relevant authors. —Richard J. Senghas 10:23, 14 September 2007 (CDT)
archive of removed material about "animal language"
This stuff was controversial anyway. I didn't write it and I don't necessarily know if it needs to be included. I'm placing it here for now in case it needs to be retrieved:
The term "[[animal language]]s" is often used for non-human languages. Most researchers agree that these are not as complex or expressive as [[human language]]; they may better be described as [[animal communication]]. Some researchers argue that there are significant differences separating human language from the communication of other animals, and that the underlying principles are unrelated. In several publicised instances, non-human animals have been trained to mimic certain features of human language. For example, [[chimpanzee]]s and [[gorilla]]s have been taught hand signs based on [[American Sign Language]]; however, they have never been successfully taught its grammar. There was also a case in 2003 of [[Kanzi]], a captive bonobo chimpanzee allegedly independently creating some words to mean certain concepts. While animal communication has debated levels of [[semantics]], it has not been shown to have [[syntax]] in the sense that human languages do. Some researchers argue that a continuum exists among the communication methods of all social animals, pointing to the fundamental requirements of group behaviour and the existence of "[[mirror cells]]" in [[primate]]s. This, however, may not be a [[scientific]] question, but is perhaps more one of [[definition]]. What exactly is the definition of the word "language"? Most researchers agree that, although human and more primitive languages have [[Analogy|analogous]] features, they are not [[wikt:homologous|homologous]].
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