I’m trying to get back in the habit.

Last week I read Adam’s Tongue, by Derek Bickerton.  It’d been awhile since I read a language-related book, but Bickerton wrote a guest-post on Language Log that seemed interesting so I thought I’d check it out.  (FTR, I don’t recommend doing a google image search for “Adam’s Tongue.”  I should have figured that out before I tried it.)

Adam’s Tongue is Bickerton’s theory on how language developed- kind of a big question.  Bickerton sets out a handful of factors that he believes must be considered to develop a theory on how language developed, analyzes them to see if they hold water, and then uses them as a guide for fleshing out what happened.  These factors include utility (it must have actually been beneficial), uniqueness (specific to humans, since we’re the only ones who can talk), ecology (in accord with where we lived at the time, ie language couldn’t have developed from a need to avoid polar bears), credibility (people had to believe what you were saying), and selfishness (it must benefit both the speaker and the listener to have language).  He spend a lot of time moving from each of these elements as the image of early language comes into focus.   It was almost suspenseful, like reading a mystery novel.  Details keep coming up, one by one, until you’ve solved the puzzle along with the author.  So I liked it.  I also liked that he makes some real claims- he doesn’t just set up the guidelines and cop out with “But who knows what happened because it was a long time ago.”  I don’t want to ruin the ending, but it involves throwing rocks  at lions and hacking up dead elephants.  Pretty cool stuff.

 The subtitle: “How Humans Made Language, How Language Made Humans” is an excellent subtitle, as Bickerton’s theory involves something niche construction theory, which essentially says that evolution/natural selection and the environment set up a positive feedback loop.  This idea is crucial for taking language from “dead elephant that way” to “omg theres tots a d.e. outside.  ttyl!”  The book was great at pulling from all sorts of sources across many fields, though I prefer footnotes on every page,  I think that probably turns off a lot of people.   The end of the book was kinda funny, as, sort of out of nowhere, Bickerton dismally suggests humans are becoming more and more antlike and that its only a matter of time before we replicate their one queen/thousands of foot soldiers model.  One can only hope.