Are we hard-wired for language?
New studies have found that infants (and even adults) seem predisposed to certain combinations of sounds and words. But is this evidence for innateness, or is there another explanation?
Linguist Daniel Midgley takes us into a great debate on this episode of Talk the Talk.
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Show notes
Forensic linguistics has found a likely candidate for the author of a crucial Bitcoin document
http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2014/apr/bitcoin-author-revealed.cfm
It’s Nick Szabo
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/04/16/nick_szabo_bitcoin_forensic_linguistics_analysis_from_suggests_he_wrote.html
An article in the Daily Mail that seems very certain that language is innate.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2600623/Language-biological-instinct-Babies-dont-learn-develop-speech-theyre-BORN-ability.html
Slightly better ones from Science Daily.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140408122316.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140401102126.htm
The article in PNAS
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/03/26/1318261111
About the sonority hierarchy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonority_hierarchy
Australian languages show different phonological tendencies than does Italian: VC as well as CV (PDF)
http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/jspui/bitstream/2328/14408/1/2004053859.pdf
Learning can begin very early.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-26/unborn-babies-learn-sounds-of-speech3a-study/4541788
http://www.counselheal.com/articles/4097/20130226/premature-babies-decipher-sounds-syllables.htm
The ‘shoes blue’ experiment. With an opinion by Chomsky.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25334-born-to-chat-humans-may-have-innate-language-instinct.html#.U1Ie9V5sPnk
Banning ‘Nazi’ in Israel
http://forward.com/articles/190783/israel-proposes-bill-to-outlaw-use-of-the-word-naz/http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.568845
http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2014/3/24/will-israel-make-use-of-nazi-slurs-and-symbols-punishable-by-law#.U09jNF5sPnk
