http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:01:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 en Double positive http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=7 http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=7#comments Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:01:27 +0000 admin http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=7 Spotted on Bash…

<Malagmyr> This linguistics professor was lecturing the class.
<Malagmyr> “In English,” he explained, “a double negative forms a
positive. In some languages, such as Russian, a double negative is
still a negative.”
<Malagmyr> “However,” the professor continued, “there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative.”
<Malagmyr> Immediately, a voice from the back of the room piped up: “Yeah….. right….”

]]> http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=7 A Neanderthal Language http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=6 http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=6#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:24:04 +0000 admin http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=6 Did language originate with the Homo Sapiens or did the Neanderthal have a language of his own? This article from current biology claims that Neanderthal man shared a gene that also appears in sub species of the homo sapien right down to modern man. FOXP2.

]]> http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=6 Language out of Gestures http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=5 http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=5#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:50:36 +0000 admin http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=5 Hearing impaired Children in Nicaragua are building complex variations of originally learned gestures to create seemingly new language. This is important because these systems have evolved not pre-set. Read about it here.

]]> http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=5 A Genetic Basis for Language http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=4 http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=4#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:48:20 +0000 admin http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=4 We do know that we can break up languages into Tonal (pitch affects language) and Non Tonal types. Now scientists are begining to ask if languages and the learning of them have a genetic basis. Read about it here.

]]> http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=4 How children learn languages http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=3 http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=3#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:41:01 +0000 admin http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=3 It has been consistently observed that 60% of a young talker’s language comprises of Nouns. This seems logical because first the child would develop a framework about it’s world before defining the complex tag of action to it’s components. Read more about it here.

]]> http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=3 Decoding Language in Nature http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=1 http://www.whittlesticks.com/blog/?p=1#comments Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:21:48 +0000 admin Why is it that humans are the only ones that speak language or at least seem to have a structured communication methodology? Then again, what have we not noticed? Scientists now use advances in molecular biology, evolutionary development biology and linguistics to decode language in nature. Read more about it here.

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