In the days of behaviorism (now coming back it seems), Bloomfield (1933, Chapter 2) writes about the function of language. He sets up with an example: “Suppose that Jack and Jill are walking down a lane. Jill is hungry. She sees an apple in a tree. She makes a noise with her larynx, tongue, and [...]
A quibble on interjections: I’ve just read Jim Hurford’s outstanding book ‘The Origins of Meaning’. In it, he discusses interjections, as the earliest precursors of linguistic utterances. (The book withholds all discussion of complex grammar; this will come in a sequel to the book.) The problem is that he says interjections ‘have no descriptive content’ [...]
The puzzle of human sociality basically comes down to the apparent conflict between a drive to compete and a drive to cooperate. We do both. What drives us to do both? How do we pull off this balancing act?
Many of the puzzles are set out in Roots of Human Sociality, my 2006 book co-edited with [...]
