Re: CHAT: Umberto Eco and Esperanto

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Brian Betty wrote:
> > Language isn't a social skill.
>
> I beg to differ, language most certainly IS a social skill.  While it
> might be true that the ability to acquire language is innate, language
> itself is still a social skill, indeed, arguably, THE social skill,
> since the use of a community's language is a prerequisite to being a
> part of that community.
Right.  It has long been argued that the defining characteristic
of human beings is their faculty with language and higher order
communication (IIRC, that's also what Stephen Gould says).
It allows them to do all sorts of things in a fundamentally better
and more efficient way that other animals just can't do.
Without communication, you simply can't have a community.

===========================================
Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
AIM: Deuterotom ICQ: 4315704
<http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

"Things just ain't the way they used to was."
     - a man on the subway
===========================================