Date:  Mon, 15 Jan 1996 19:59:12 -0400

From:  "Bethany Dumas, UTK" <DUMASB[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UTKVX.UTK.EDU>

Subject: Re: myths about language



I am finally reading Pinker's _Language Instinct_. It presents a list of common misconceptions about language (pp. 17-18), then apparently (I have not

read the entire book yet) spends much of the rest of the book

debunking them.



Pinker's list:

1. language (L) is "man's [sic] most important cultural invention"

2. L is the "quintessential ex. of [human] capacity to use symbols"

3. L is "a biologically unprecedented event irrevocably separating

[humans] from other animals."

4. children learn to talk from role models and caregivers

5. sagging educ. standards have led to a debasement of standards,

grammar, etc.

6. English is utterly irrational



I have assigned the book as supplemental, required reading in Ling 200.



Bethany