Jump to content
Linguaholic

thomas pendrake

Members
  • Posts

    40
  • Joined

  • Last visited

    Never

About thomas pendrake

  • Birthday 10/04/1946

Converted

  • Currently studying
    russian
  • Native tongue
    Southern American English

thomas pendrake's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/14)

0

Reputation

  1. Having read the article, I think that it is clear that this study was not based on a rationalistic but rather an empirical approach. If you don't understand the difference, rationalism is based of pre-conceived a priori concepts, wheras empiricism relies on testing the a prioriconcepts against reality.
  2. Hopefully, humans are the smartest animals on the planet, but I suspect that some cetaceans may actually be more intelligent than chimps. Bonobos are probably smarter than chimps. Some whales are known to recite tales that are comparable in information content to human novels, but we are unable to decipher them (we can use information theory to measure the amount of information ). Look for "songs of the Humpback Whale".
  3. I apologize for the way the hyperlinks posted above. The first http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/monkey-see-monkey-speak-video/ is for an article in Scientific American. The second http://www.pnas.org/content/106/51/22026.full is for an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The linguists involved in the study see it as a significant contribution to the understanding of the development of language by humans. I include all species of humans both extant and extinct. This still looks wrong. I don't understand how the hyperlink function works on this forum.
  4. I have just become aware of a study about the language of a species of monkey in Sierra Leone, the Campbell's monkey (Ceropithecus campbellii. It seems that this particular monkey actually has a grammar and words whose meaning can vary from one area to another. They have a limited number of sounds , which they concatenate to form words and sentences to convey specific meanings. ]http://www.scientificamerican.com/http://www.pnas.org/content/106/51/22026.fullarticle/monkey-see-monkey-speak-video/] to form words and sentences to convey specific meanings. http://www.scientificamerican.com/http://www.pnas.org/content/106/51/22026.fullarticle/monkey-see-monkey-speak-video/
  5. I seem to recall that spoken language and sung language use different parts of the brain. I suspect that this may affect how useful learning through sung language may be. Perhaps when you do not know a language well you may utilize different parts of the brain so that the learning process still works.
  6. While replying to a question about language on a forum that has nothing to do with the topic I thought about "speaking in tongues" and it made me think back to this thread. Also known as glossolalia, this form of speech is thought by some to relate back to natural language. There has even been academic research into the phenomenon. Have any of you had experience with this? Have any of you seen this from different language backgrounds, such as in an English speaking church and then a Spanish speaking church. Do Spanish speaking Pentecostals sound different from English speaking Pentecostals? I believe the phenomenon exists in different religions, does the glossolalia differ?
  7. After looking at elvish I realize that there is inadequate vocabulary to write any poetry that would be up to my standards. I haven't looked at Vulcan or Klingon, but might consider lapine and use whatever vocabulary is there since lapine poetry would need a limited vocabulary to fit the mind of a rabbit.
  8. :doubtful: I try to use correct spelling and grammar, but may use text-speak when a typo leads me that way. I am a professional writer who attended the College of William and Mary in the late 1960s and try to always use correct-speak unless trying to make a point. :amazed:
  9. I hope to try learning enough Elvish to write poetry in it. I also once hoped to be an astronaut. I remember years ago that there was a theory that there is an instinctive language that is natural to humans, but is now repressed or lost. Does anyone out there remember this and have any further information on this?
  10. Various languages have been artificially created, such as Esperanto or Klingon. Some of these (Esperanto, Bolak, etc.) have been academic attempts to create an universal language. Others (Klingon, Vulcan, Lapine, Nadsat) have been constructed to use in fiction. Have any of you ever studied any of these? Elvish (to go with Tolkien) seems to be particularly popular. I suppose Elvish poetry could be fun, I'll have to see if my feeble old mind can handle it. Seems to me that a serious linguist would have fun with some of these.
  11. :nerd: Of course I don't have an accent, but Yankees sure do. Actually I speak with what s considered a neutral American accent due to traveling around a lot when I was young and having an education which was desgned to eliminate regional accents. I can mirror accents quickly.
  12. :doubtful: I don't know if there is a natural gender relation to the ability to learn languages, but if there is I would expect that there would be more men showing a strong ability with perhaps more women showing moderately high ability. Most sex-linked genetic characteristics are that way since they have to occur in the portion of the X chromosome that is not matched by the Y chromosome.
  13. What do you mean when you say knowing? How did the person learn the languages? Many people grow up in bilingual environments and may speak multiple languages but not be "educated" in either. If a person studies multiple languages in a scholarly way or becomes very fluent in mulitple languages through"street" learning it probably indicates intelligence. :wacky:
  14. Russian Pianist? I guess there a few of those! Thank you for the link. I have been taught that there are three great literatures in known human history, and Russian is one of them. English and Greco-Roman are the other two.
  15. One thing that should be noted is that singing involves different parts of the brain from speaking. I suspect that listening to singing is different from listening to speech. Singing a foreign language would then imprint the language on more of the brain. It would also help avoid boredom and increase attention to the learning process.
×
×
  • Create New...