Wednesday, July 21, 2004

There's a scientific theory that language evolved from the use of Motherese. Early hominid mothers would carry their offspring on their own bodies, much like you see today. However, they were also foragers and often they had to set the baby down in order to find food. In order to reassure the baby as she was doing her work, she would use vocal cues to comfort the child. Great mothers were those that could read the child accurately and reassure the child sufficiently. This remote comforting, derived from more primitive primate communication methods, marked the start of motherese, which then, in turn, led to the modern language as we know it, or so one story goes. Rico, a border collie can recognize 200 words and learn new ones quickly. In a test, he was able to hear an entirely new word that applied to an object and he picked that object out of the group. To some scientists, this ability suggests that the brain structures that support this kind of behavior are not unique to humans and may have formed the evolutionary basis for the advanced language abilities that we have. With that being said, how come you can't even get a simple HELLO out of some people!?!?! I really think our species is regressing sometimes.