Re: Why grammar is so complex a subject

you're not alone in this view; there are those who hold that
language's initial purpose was probably for gossip.  it's very much a
tool for social networks, more than for description of the
surrounding environment.

(the idea being that the environment is its own descriptor, while
social networks need to be expressed by social actions to be
perceived, and that in the case of humans, this happened to be
language.)

kit

On Dec 28, 2005, at 9:50 PM, Cian Ross wrote:
> I'm not quite comfortable with at least one assumption you seem to be
> making here.  Why would language even at a very early stage
> necessarily
> be limited to matters of immediate physical survival?  Language
> doesn't
> seem to be necessary for survival at all: AFAIK humans are the only
> species that use syntactic language as such and while we're very
> successful we're not alone in being successful.  I have to wonder if
> language more likely started from interpersonal interactions and then
> later turned "outwards" to deal with other matters?
>
> Regards,
> Cian Ross
> cian@cox-internet.com
> http://crlh.tzo.org/~cian/conlang/