TBB199Y1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Philology, Simile, Neuroscience
1 Feb 2018
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Chapter 1: an instinct to acquire and art. In any natural history of the human species, language would stand out as the preeminent trait. The conception of language as a kind of instinct was first articulated in 1871 by darwin himself. In the descent of man he had to contend with language because its confinement to humans seemed to present a challenge to his theory. As . one of the founders of the noble science of philology observes, language is an art, like brewing or baking; but writing would have been a better simile. It certainly is not a true instinct, for every language has to be learned. It differs, however, widely from all ordinary arts, for man has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children; while no child has an instinctive tendency to brew, bake, or write.
