TCY Analytics – The Smarter way to Crack CAT Exam
Posted by TCYonline.com on August 24, 2010
Language is not a cultural artifact that we learn the way we learn to tell
time or how the federal government works. Instead, it is a distinct
piece of the biological makeup of our brains. Language is a complex,
specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously, without
conscious effort or formal instruction, is deployed without awareness of
its underlying logic, is qualitatively the same in every individual, and is
distinct from more general abilities to process information or behave
intelligently. For these reasons some cognitive scientists have described
language as a psychological faculty, a mental organ, a neural system,
and a computational module. But I prefer the admittedly quaint term
“instinct”. It conveys the idea that people know how to talk in more or
less the sense that spiders know how to spin webs. Web spinning was not
invented by some unsung spider genius and does not depend on having
had the right education or on having an aptitude for architecture or the
construction trades. Rather, spiders spin spider webs because they have
spider brains, which give them the urge to spin and the competence to
succeed. Although there are differences between webs and words, I
will encourage you to see language in this way, for it helps to make sense
of the phenomena we will explore.
Thinking of language as an instinct inverts the popular wisdom, especially
as it has been passed down in the canon of the humanities and social
sciences. Language is no more a cultural invention than is upright posture.
It is not a manifestation of a general capacity to use symbols: a three year old,
we shall see, is a grammatical genius, but is quite incompetent at the
visual arts, religious iconography, traffic signs, and the other staples of
the semiotics curriculum. Though language is a magnificent ability
unique to Homo sapiens among living species, it does not call for
sequestering the study of humans from the domain of biology, for a
magnificent ability unique to a particular living species is far from
unique in the animal kingdom. Some kinds of bats home in on flying
insects using Doppler sonar. Some kinds of migratory birds navigate
thousands of miles by calibrating the positions of the constellations
against the time of day and year. In nature’s talent show, we are simply
a species of primate with our own act, a knack for communicating
information about who did what to whom by modulating the sounds
we make when we exhale.
Once you begin to look at language not as the ineffable essence of
human uniqueness but as a biological adaptation to communicate
information, it is no longer as tempting to see language as an insidious
shaper of thought, and, we shall see, it is not. Moreover, seeing language
as one of nature’s engineering marvels an organ with “that perfection
of structure and co adaptation which justly excites our admiration,” in
Darwin’s words gives us a new respect for your ordinary Joe and the
Much maligned English language (or any language). The complexity of
language, from the scientist’s point of view, is part of our biological
birthright; it is not something that parents teach their children or
something that must be elaborated in school as Oscar Wilde said,
“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to
time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” A preschooler’s
tacit knowledge of grammar is more sophisticated than the thickest
style manual or the most state of the art computer language system,
and the same applies to all healthy human beings, even the notorious
syntax fracturing professional athlete and the, you know, like,
inarticulate teenage skateboarder. Finally, since language is the product
of a well engineered biological instinct, we shall see that it is not the nutty
barrel of monkeys that entertainer columnists make it out to be.
- Read the passage and answer the questions
below:
1. According to the passage, which of the following
does not stem from popular wisdom on language?
1. Language is a cultural artifact.
2. Language is a cultural invention.
3. Language is learnt as we grow.
4. Language is unique to Homo Sapiens.
5. Language is a psychological faculty.
2. Which of the following can be used to replace the
“spiders know how to spin webs” analogy as used by
the author?
1. A kitten learning to jump over a wall
2. Bees collecting nectar
3. A donkey carrying a load
4. A horse running a Derby
5. A pet dog protecting its owner’s property
3. According to the passage, which of the following is
unique to human beings?
1. Ability to use symbols while communicating with
one another.
2. Ability to communicate with each other through
voice modulation.
3. Ability to communicate information to other
members of the species.
4. Ability to use sound as means of communication.
5. All of the above.
4. According to the passage, complexity of language
cannot be taught by parents or at school to children
because
1. children instinctively know language.
2. children learn the language on their own.
3. language is not amenable to teaching.
4. children know language better than their
teachers or parents.
5. children are born with the knowledge of
semiotics.
5. Which of the following best summarizes the passage?
1. Language is unique to Homo Sapiens.
2. Language is neither learnt nor taught.
3. Language is not a cultural invention or artifact as
it is made out.
4. Language is instinctive ability of human beings.
5. Language is use of symbols unique to human
beings.
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