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Human Language, Part Three: The Human Language Evolves--With and Without Words*
- 1995 ----- color ----- 55 min ----- vhs
- Did we create language because we're smart, or are we smart because language "happened?" Why chimps can't talk and we can. How language must be a biological phenomenon, which evolved in our species and no other. How we combine the miracle of syntax with what we inherited from our animal past--body language, hand gestures, and facial expressions. Human language is a dazzling "mixed system." David McNeill shows that gestures are analogical while speech is digital. How the human larynx "fell," allowing us to say syllables with new vowels like "ee" and "oo," which no other animal can do. How the fall of the larynx means that we can easily choke to death. "Why would you take a risk like that?" asks George Miller. Because language is so powerful. Nobody knows how or when human language evolved, but we hear speculations from Stephen Jay Gould, Noam Chomsky, and many others. (Closed-Captioned) (Restricted to use on University of Washington campuses only)
- Topics: (Anthropology: Cultural, Education, English, Linguistics, Speech and Hearing Sciences, Speech Communications)
![[University of Washington]](http://www.washington.edu/home/graphics/uwsealf6.gif)
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