What can we learn about language from children who grew up without it?
People are fascinated by stories of “feral children”, raised apart from human contact. Can these children ever learn language, once they’re found? And what does this tell us about the human language faculty?
Daniel and Ben take a critical look at the stories on this episode of Talk the Talk.
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Jane and I chat ahead of the show.
Cutting Room Floor
There’s a special bonus Word of the Week in this CRF post.
Ben and Daniel are talking about Easter. If you’re a non-believer, how do you navigate religious holidays? How have your older family members been disappointing you lately? And they’ve decided that people are terrible. It’s more inspirational than it sounds!
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Show notes
AI programs exhibit racial and gender biases, research reveals
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/13/ai-programs-exhibit-racist-and-sexist-biases-research-reveals
Scientists Taught A Robot Language. It Immediately Turned Racist.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/nidhisubbaraman/robot-racism-through-language
An AI stereotype catcher
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6334/133
Google searches expose racial bias, says study of names
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-21322183
The ‘three black teenagers’ search shows it is society, not Google, that is racist
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/10/three-black-teenagers-google-racist-tweet
Meet the 8-year-old girl raised by monkeys
http://nypost.com/2017/04/06/meet-the-8-year-old-girl-raised-by-monkeys/
Girl found living with monkeys in Indian forest
https://apnews.com/9bb6522fe5c642a38a62bd7f99b23708
Indian girl found in jungle was not living with monkeys, officials say
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/08/indian-girl-found-in-jungle-was-not-living-with-monkeys-officials-say
Elissa Newport: Contrasting Conceptions of the Critical Period for Language
Google Books link
The History of Herodotus
http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.2.ii.html
Erik The Flutemaker: Egyptian Flute (used with permission)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnyW3R-v19Y
Erik’s YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/theflutemaker
The King of Scotland’s Peculiar Language Experiment
http://mentalfloss.com/article/75378/king-scotlands-peculiar-language-experiment
A creepy 15th century language experiment took place on this island
http://io9.gizmodo.com/a-creepy-15th-century-language-experiment-took-place-on-1484724484?IR=T
Peter Mundy’s account of Emperor Akbar
Google Books link
The Critical Period for Language Acquisition and Feral Children
https://sites.psu.edu/psych256sp16/2016/04/21/the-critical-period-for-language-acquisition-and-feral-children/
Wikipedia: Amala and Kamala
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amala_and_Kamala
Starved, tortured, forgotten: Genie, the feral child who left a mark on researchers
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/14/genie-feral-child-los-angeles-researchers
The Heartbreaking Story Of Genie, A Feral Child Who Will Never Learn To Communicate
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/critical-period-for-language-acquisition-2013-10#xFbIh50RV7uI6TRo.99
Feral Children in Fact and Fiction
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/feral_children_in_fact_and_fiction/
Urban Dictionary: re-accommodate
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=re-accommodate
Flight or fight? United’s ‘re-accommodation’ of passenger a colossal mistake
http://www.smh.com.au/business/aviation/flight-or-fight-uniteds-reaccommodation-of-passenger-a-colossal-mistake-20170410-gvi842.html
#reaccommodate We put the “Hospital” in Hospitality #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos
— Hassie L Buckner (@rockingrobin2) 11 April 2017
United C.E.O. offers the worst possible response to the airline’s P.R. disaster
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/04/united-airlines-oscar-munoz
New United logo
http://imgur.com/gallery/SQLY2
Wiktionary: voluntell
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/voluntell
The Rice University Neologisms Database: voluntold
http://neologisms.rice.edu/index.php?a=term&d=1&t=7413
Slate: Why Do We Hate Certain Words? The curious phenomenon of word aversion.
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/2013/04/word_aversion_hate_moist_slacks_crevice_why_do_people_hate_words.html
Urban Dictionary: jawn
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=jawn
The Enduring Mystery Of ‘Jawn’, Philadelphia’s All-Purpose Noun
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-enduring-mystery-of-jawn-philadelphias-allpurpose-noun
Read This: The history of “jawn,” Philadelphia’s favorite all-purpose word
http://www.avclub.com/article/read-history-jawn-philadelphias-favorite-all-purpo-234368
Funky 4+1 Thats The Joint (Vinyl High Quality)
https://youtu.be/FzuskHUux6U
Language Hat: JAWN.
http://languagehat.com/jawn/
Image credit: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/73/60/3c/73603cbe170bc31003f81d4541aafe2b.jpg
Transcript
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