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Author Topic: Interesting Linguistics Question  (Read 689 times)

Hubris Incalculable

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Interesting Linguistics Question
« on: April 18, 2012, 11:21:50 pm »

Like in the physics thought experiment in this thread, I have had an idea. Hopefully you guys can help my puzzle or theorise through it:

Say you had a selection of children, all together, none of whom have yet learned to speak, and, for purposes of this experiment have been completely excluded from all linguistic input, yet have food and sanitation etc. provided to them.

How (if at all) would they develop communication among each other? Would it be the closest approximation the world would have to cave-man speech? Or would they never learn to speak? These and other possibilities...
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Sir Finkus

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Re: Interesting Linguistics Question
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2012, 11:27:13 pm »

Found it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaraguan_Sign_Language
It's not exactly what you're talking about, but it's close.  A bunch of deaf children, each with their own "language" were brought together.  They eventually were able to develop their own complex way of communicating.

That's probably the closest you'll get to an answer, for obvious ethical reasons.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2012, 11:32:20 pm by Sir Finkus »
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Stargrasper

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Re: Interesting Linguistics Question
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2012, 11:28:53 pm »

Historically, studies on this tend to find that they learn to communicate non-verbally.  Furthermore, if they fail to learn language at a young age, will likely have great difficulty learning later.
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