Origins of Languages and Lessons from the Amazon Daniel Everett
[NAVIGATION]
0:43 – Why language began with Homo Erectus – 1.5 million years earlier than expected.
2:47 – If Homo Erectus had tools, he must have had language.
3:35 – Homo Erectus was a sailor
7:20 a.m. – How communication evolved (Theory of sign progression)
11:54 – Why would Noam Chomsky assume that language is innate?
16:42 – The Piraha language of Amazonia lacks "recursion/" in the grammar. What is recursion, why is it so important, and why would their language lack it?
10:11 – The recursion controversy. What is recursion? Why does it matter that Pirahã doesn't have one?
9:30 p.m. – Is the way babies learn a language relevant to the evolution of the first language?
11:20 p.m. – How Dan learned Portuguese
31:23 – Can we apply what we learned from Dan's book / "How Language Began/" to our own language learning? ("That's why you still don't speak Piraha – we don't eat leaves./")
34:08 – Other people try to research Piraha and make claims about the language… but without learning the Piraha language or even finding an interpreter who can speak Piraha correctly.
38:30 – Other languages don't have recursion – why was this controversial and why did Dan receive so much heat for pointing out that Piraha lacked recursion?
39:28 – Noam Chomsky claimed in 2002 that all languages *must* have recursion. Dan discovered that the Piraha language *doesn't* have recursion. Chomsky rejects this claim but does not provide sufficient counterarguments.
41:34 – Dan talks about Charles Sanders Peirce
44:33 – Caleb Everett, Dan's son, is also a linguist who wrote a book on numbers as a cognitive tool.
46:36 – Dan speaking in Piraha
0:43 – Why language began with Homo Erectus – 1.5 million years earlier than expected.
2:47 – If Homo Erectus had tools, he must have had language.
3:35 – Homo Erectus was a sailor
7:20 a.m. – How communication evolved (Theory of sign progression)
11:54 – Why would Noam Chomsky assume that language is innate?
16:42 – The Piraha language of Amazonia lacks "recursion/" in the grammar. What is recursion, why is it so important, and why would their language lack it?
10:11 – The recursion controversy. What is recursion? Why does it matter that Pirahã doesn't have one?
9:30 p.m. – Is the way babies learn a language relevant to the evolution of the first language?
11:20 p.m. – How Dan learned Portuguese
31:23 – Can we apply what we learned from Dan's book / "How Language Began/" to our own language learning? ("That's why you still don't speak Piraha – we don't eat leaves./")
34:08 – Other people try to research Piraha and make claims about the language… but without learning the Piraha language or even finding an interpreter who can speak Piraha correctly.
38:30 – Other languages don't have recursion – why was this controversial and why did Dan receive so much heat for pointing out that Piraha lacked recursion?
39:28 – Noam Chomsky claimed in 2002 that all languages *must* have recursion. Dan discovered that the Piraha language *doesn't* have recursion. Chomsky rejects this claim but does not provide sufficient counterarguments.
41:34 – Dan talks about Charles Sanders Peirce
44:33 – Caleb Everett, Dan's son, is also a linguist who wrote a book on numbers as a cognitive tool.
46:36 – Dan speaking in Piraha
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Dan Everett's books:
/"How Language Began/" – https://amzn.to/2McfW08
/"Don't sleep, there are snakes/" – https://amzn.to/2QjOing
/"Language, the cultural tool/" – https://amzn.to/2MAbFUs
Caleb Everett's book:
/"Numbers and our creation/" – https://amzn.to/2owCeSA
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