Secret

"Language is beginning to submit to that uniquely satisfying kind of understanding that we call science, but the news has been kept a secret." Thus writes Stephen Pinker in his book The Language Instinct. I have been in on the secret for a while, and share much of the enthusiasm and optimism behind the statement. A field of research that has been allowed to pursue beauty and aesthetic pleasure now offers insights as important as the dutiful analysis of chemistry or bodyparts.

As one of his examples, Pinker describes the first meeting between English goldrushers and native New Guineans, and how the New Guineans tested if the newcomers were human by smelling their excrement. The two peoples might look different, but what came from their insides were the same. This anecdote is used to argue that language is also a common trait, and thatdifferent languages independent of each other develop similar structures. The description of warriors' amazement at smelling poo is thus equaled to linguist's smelling the first traces of a Universal Grammar.

I laugh out loud when I am forced to answer the rethorical question hinted at: Why are we so amazed that languages are as equal as our physical abilities? Why did we expect some languages to be more primitive than others?

And, the most personal for me: Why am I so eager to think of language as a local social construct?