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Human Language -
Language is so much a part of everyday life that we hardly stop to think about it. Children learn this skill as easily as they learn to walk and run. To lose it is devastating, to fail to grasp the significance of communication, as in autism, is very distressing for all concerned. We take language for granted. We have no memory of acquiring it. Children can learn one or more languages with the greatest of ease. The complexity of human language is only now beginning to be understood. Its interdependent facets and the subtlety of what we can express - ambiguity, metaphor, and implied meanings, all point to an intricate complexity. Animals communicate and so many would argue that human language is simply an extension of the ability of animals. Dr Darrall will explore animal and human language including recent research on chimp communication and the possible ways for language to develop. Is it a question of more grey matter in a bigger brain? Are there any primitive human languages that we can study? Do fossils of primates and humans shed some real light on these questions? Or - is it another one of Darwin's "black boxes"? This meeting will provide opportunity to start to explore these and other issues that the challenge of language brings to us.
Dr Darrall graduated in agricultural botany and, following research, was awarded a PhD in botany. She also holds the degree of MSc in Speech and Language Therapy, the field in which she practises. |