Thursday, February 26, 2004

The Science and Evolution of Language The current Science has a special issue devoted entirely to language. It is an interesting collection of articles and essays on the past, present and future of language. Beginning with the archaeology of language, researchers in linguistics, archaeology, molecular genetics, and human ecology explore an explanation for the present-day distribution of many of the world's languages and language families. A variety of perspectives are represented including areas such as anthropology, archaeology, cognitive science, linguistics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and psychology--on the origins, evolution, and uniqueness of human language. The articles are thoughtful and provocative. There are explorations into brain systems in both primates and humans. Researchers probing into the neurological basis of language are focusing on seemingly unrelated abilities such as mimicry and movement. They ask "are we wired for imitation?" Language areas such as Broca's and Wernicke's overlap brain areas that are critical for imitation and suggests that there is an evolutionary continuity between action recognition, imitation, and language. Advances in brain imaging, neuroscience, and genetics have enabled researchers to go deeper into our brains and our biological past. For a long time, researchers treated language ability as some sort of "miracle," but now new discoveries are unravelling some of the mystery. The Future of Language According to David Graddol, "The world's language system is undergoing rapid change because of demographic trends, new technology, and international communication." Both written and spoken commuication are affected. Contrary to what seems to be the current trend, English may not be the dominant language - it may perhaps be Mandarin. The author looks at the current languages spoken (the top 4 are Chinese, English, Hindi/Urdu and Spanish) and he projects that according to population statistics the top 4 in the year 2025 will be Chinese, Hindi/Urdu, Arabic and English. Language in Science Globalization of scientific English seems to promise greater international unity. English has become the language of choice for international meetings, for corporate science, multinational research programs, and official Web sites.The implications are important and have both positive and negative aspects. The role of English greatly increases the possibilities for international commerce in scientific work, on many levels but the dominance of English can weaken the relevance of other tongues. Scientists with a limited command of English may find it more difficult to publish in international journals and thus to reach a corresponding audience. "Such dominance can yield the illusion of a communicational tyranny by English and the underdog psychology that goes with it." Language and software Software is described as the "key enabler of the global information infrastructure" Most of the infrastructure supporting the information age, however, is not evident or visible to most people."Few people appreciate the importance of software, until it breaks!" There needs to be a great deal more research into the amount and extent of programming languages and software in use in the world today. As the computer becomes more important in all forms of global exchange, there needs to be a focus on the language of this communication for security and increased functionality. The development of these languages may take various forms, for example, some researchers are exploring more exotic forms of languages involving speech, gestures, pictures, and templates. Multimedia is becoming more important but will it become a dominant feature in programming languages of the future? Clearly, these new forms of communication with computers are compelling and will continue to evolve. Science Volume 303, Number 5662, Issue of 27 Feb 2004, pp. 1316-1319. Related Links to some of the authors and topics David Graddol Lawrence Guy Straus Constance Holden Elizabeth Pennisi 11:40:15 PM    comment []

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