Baby Talk
Learning language, researchers are finding, is an astonishing act of brain computation--and it's performed by people too young to tie their shoes
By Shannon Brownlee
Posted 6/7/98
Page 8 of 8
Linguists don't yet know how much of grammar children are able to absorb simply by listening. And they have only begun to parse the genes or accidents of brain wiring that might give rise, as Pinker puts it, to the poet, the raconteur, or an Alexander Haig, a Mrs. Malaprop. What is certain is that language is one of the great wonders of the natural world, and linguists are still being astonished by its complexity and its power to shape the brain. Human beings, says Kegl, "show an incredible enthusiasm for discourse." Maybe what is most innate about language is the passion to communicate.
WILLIAMS SYNDROME
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