1. The Origins of Language
L.E.I. Carlos García, CESUES UAM

4. Belief in Divine Creation
• In most religions, there appears to be a “divine
source” who provides humans with L.
- God created adam and “whatsoever Adam called
every living creature, that was the name thereof”.
- L came from Sarasvati, wife of Brahma, creator of
the universe (Hindu tradition).
• Language: a gift of the gods to humans.
• humans were created from the start with an
innate capacity to use language.

6. Natural Evolution
• Human due to evolution evolved a LAD.
• As soon as humans developed the
biological, or neurological, capacity for
creative language, the cultural development
of some specific system of forms with
meanings would have been an inevitable next
step.

8. Invention!
• Consciously invented by humans.
• Gradual refinement served as a continuous
impetus to additional human mental
development.
• Language through imitation.

9. Imitation Hypotheses
1) The "ding-dong" hypothesis
2) The "pooh-pooh" hypothesis
3) The "bow-wow" hypothesis
4) The "ta-ta" hypothesis
But more than imitation, there was certain need
to communicate and express feelings…

10. Necessity Hypotheses
1) The warning hypothesis
2) The "yo-he-ho" hypothesis
3) The Lying hypothesis

11. Task
• Bring notes on why the belief in divine
creation and the natural evolution hypothesis
can’t be proven.
• Read carefully The Origin of Language until
Hypotheses regarding Language Diversity
(Evidence).
• Prepare for test.