The Point of Our Words

Abstract

First lines of the Introduction (as abstract not provided): On the Origin of Species(1) marked a shift in the appreciation not only of species' origins, but also of species themselves. So it often is that when the source of an object or phenomenon is examined, we gain valuable insights into the thing itself. It is this kind of motivation that lies behind the philosophical interest in language acquisition. The thought is that if we can understand how children come to learn language, we will inevitably become clearer about the nature of language itself. The problem, however, arises from the fact that this relationship can go both ways, and a pre-developed theory of language can often inform our theory of language acquisition. If one goes into the project of examining language acquisition with pre-conceived notions about the nature of language itself, they are likely to ask their questions in ways which presuppose those notions. So it is, at least, with most ostensive models of language acquisition. Ostension is (roughly) the view that children come to understand language by watching adults point (or more generally gesture) towards an object, while the adult also utters the word which is associated (in some way) with that object - thereby teaching the child to associate the word with the object. It should be noted that 'object' does not refer to strictly physical 'objects' (nouns, items in the world), but rather to anything which can take the place of 'x' in a sentence like "x is the object of my attention". As such, our 'objects' can be things like tables and chairs, but also thoughts, concepts, actions, etc.