Video and Multimedia

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Human language is the most human thing about being human. Many linguists believe that language is biological; we’re born with it. The capacity of the human brain to acquire language is the distinguishing feature that separates humans from the rest of the living beings on the planet. Our ability to put thoughts into a code in order to communicate with someone else empowers us beyond imagination. Other living beings are larger, stronger, faster, and smaller, but no other living being has the capacity for language. Because of their capacity for language, humans have become the most powerful living beings on earth. Yet, while cultures appear to use vastly different languages, linguists believe that most of the world’s 5000 or so languages are remarkably similar.

1. Video Link: Noam Chomsky on Universal Grammar

Description: One of the most fascinating dimensions of human language is the idea of universal grammar; that is, that all of the languages of the world are subsets of one universal language/grammar. Noam Chomsky, perhaps the most famous linguist, discusses universal grammar in this 13-minute video.

2. Video Link: Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar

Description: In this episode of The Ling Space, we learn about Universal Grammar and evidence that babies are “little language acquisition geniuses.”

3. Video Link: Mark Pagel: How Language Transformed Humanity

Description: Mark Pagel is a professor and head of the Bioinformatics Laboratory at the University of Reading. Pagel's fields include evolutionary biology and the development of languages. In this 20-minute TED talk, Pagel discusses how human language transformed humanity. This is a fascinating lecture on how language distinguishes us (and makes us the most powerful) from all the other living things on the planet.