Foreword to the fact that language is preordained in modern humans.and a recent book The language instinct(1994)by Steven Pinker has made arguments for linguistic innateness available to a wide audience. But the biologist Eric Lenneberg was perhaps the most important linguistic pioneer.In 1967,his ground-breaking book.The biological foundations of language,was published.Previously.fierce arguments about whether language was due to 'nature'(biological program- ming)or to 'nurture'(teaching and learning)had raged in the field of language acquisition.Lenneberg showed that the answer lay somewhere between the two:language had all the hallmarks of behaviour controlled by maturation that is.like walking.or sexual behaviour.it develops 'naturally'at a preordained time in an individual's life.provided that an adequate.nurturing' environment is present.Viewed in this light.the nature versus nurture controversy fades away.In short.language is now known to be'innately guided behaviour'.Humans are naturally guided to pay attention to certain aspects of language,then they fill in the gaps via learning.They operate much as bees do with flowers (chapter 3).Bees were surely not born with an encyclopaedia of flower types in their minds,yet they unerringly fly to flowers rather than bus-stops or coloured umbrellas.Bees,it transpires,are naturally guided by scent above all,but also by colour and shape. They instinctively fly to flowers due to a combination of these factors which they 'naturally'notice and prioritize,but they have to learn the details of the particular plants in their environment. Humans behave similarly with language. Of course,holes still remain in our knowledge:in particular.at what stage did language leap from being something new which humans discovered to being something which every newborn human is scheduled to acquire?This is still a puzzle. But convergence may provide answers.That is.in evolution a bound forward sometimes occurs which is more than the sum of the seemingly small steps which contribute to it.In language. mental developments coincided with physical ones. Mentally,humans knew how to 'put themselves into another person's shoes'.possibly as an offshoot of their ability to deceive one another (chapter 6).This in turn led to an ability to refer to people and things which were out of sight or even non-existent. F45
Foreword They also started to use vocal sounds as grooming devices.the forerunner of the 'hello,how are you?'type of social talk which humans indulge in today. Physically,a deprived physical environment led to more meat-eating and,as a result.a bigger brain.The enlarged brain led to the premature birth of humans,and in consequence a protracted childhood.during which mothers cooed and crooned to their offspring.An upright stance altered the shape of the mouth and vocal tract,allowing a range of coherent sounds to be uttered (chapter 7). Together.the mental and physical developments paved the way for language as we know it-though many details still need to be clarified. Advances in knowledge are like clear patches in a fog,as pointed out by the writer J.G.Farrell in his novel The siege of Krishnapur: The advance of science is not...like a man crossing a river from one stepping-stone to another.It is much more like someone trying to grope his way forward through a London fog.Just occasionally,in a slight lifting of the fog,you can glimpse the truth,establish the location not only of where you are standing but also perhaps of the streets round about...The wise scientist deliberately searches for such liftings of the fog because they allow him to fill in the map of his knowledge... The fog surrounding language origin is gradually lifting.In this book I have tried to explain clearly what we already know.Future generations will,I hope,pick up from here and fill in the gaps. Jean Aitchison September 1999 F46
Preface This book deals with human language:how and why it began. how it evolved,and what holds all languages together.This is an enormous topic,which has in the past attracted people with a wide range of interests.This perhaps accounts for the scattered nature of the evidence.This book tries to present an overview of our current knowledge.In some ways,it's several books woven into one,since the angles from which the topic can be approached are multiple. Many books on language start with an outline of what language involves,its key characteristics,and so on.This book takes a different path.A minimum about language is discussed in the early chapters,just enough to highlight some of its puzzling features. This sets the scene for an exploration of its origin and evolution.As the book progresses,more information about language is added. following as far as possible the elaboration which our ancestors built in to language as it evolved over the millennia. Inevitably,some decisions had to be taken as to what to include. and what to omit.I have tried not to repeat material from other books I have written:The articulate mammal (4th edition 1998). Language change(2nd edition 1991).Words in the mind(2nd edition 1994).Occasional overlaps were unavoidable.but I have kept them to a minimum. I am very grateful to the numerous people who sent me offprints,made interesting suggestions,or were willing to engage in stimulating conversations about the topic. I would like to thank warmly those who read either the whole draft manuscript or large chunks of it.Their helpful and often detailed comments have undoubtedly improved the final text. F47
Preface These are(in alphabetical order)Judith Ayling(Cambridge University Press),John Ayto(University of Sussex),Roger Goodwin(University of Sussex),Patricia Ingham (University of Oxford).Diana Lewis (University of Oxford),and Paul Meara(University of Swansea).Of these.my thanks go above all to Diana Lewis.my research assistant,who patiently and cheerfully helped to track down obscure references,to keep the bibliography organized,and to prepare the final manuscript.Without her help,it would all have taken a good deal longer. Oxford Jean Aitchison F48
Contents Preface by Halliday F10 王宗炎序 F11 Preface by Chomsky F14 沈家煊序 F21 导读 F24 Foreword to the Canto edition F43 Preface F47 Part 1 Puzzles 1 A natural curiosity: 3 How did language begin? 2 A peculiar habit: 16 What is language for? 3 The bother at Babel: 26 Why do languages differ so much? 4 Distinct duties: 38 Is language an mdependent skill? F7