#276 Daniel Everett: The Evolution and Varieties of Language, and the Pirahã

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RECORDED ON OCTOBER 21st, 2019.
Dr. Daniel Everett is Trustee Professor of Cognitive Sciences at Bentley University. He holds a ScD and a Masters of Linguistics from the Universidade Estadual in Campinas (UNICAMP). He is well-known for his many years of field research among the Pirahã people of the Brazilian Amazon jungle. Dr. Everett's books include Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious, and How Language Began: The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention.

In this episode, we talk about linguistics, and the Pirahã. First, Dr. Everett distinguishes between communication and language. He also refers to issues with Universal Grammar, and gives us his account of why H. erectus should have been the first hominin to have language. We talk about the biological tools needed for language, and the limitations in other primates’ use of sign language. We refer to three different types of language (G1, G2, and G3), cultural evolution, the universal traits of language, and difficulties in distinguishing between different languages. We discuss the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, and if there is evidence that language influences thinking. Finally, in the last ten minutes, Dr. Everett talks about the Pirahã society, their culture and language.

Time Links:
00:45 Communication and language
04:08 The evolutionary bases of language, and issues with Universal Grammar
08:08 Did H. erectus have language?
10:34 The biological tools needed for language
12:23 About primates that learned sign language
15:15 G1, G2, and G3 types of language
21:51 Cultural evolution in language
24:26 Universal traits of language
34:05 The difficulty in distinguishing different languages
40:19 Does language influence thinking?
47:43 The Pirahã, their culture, and their language
57:21 Follow Dr. Everett’s work!
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I also leave you with the link to a recent montage video I did with the interviews I have released until the end of June 2018:

And check out my playlists on:

#TheDissenter #DanielEverett #Linguistics #Pirahã

[jabrown]

YOU HAD DAN EVERETT ON YOUR PODCAST!? I'm super happy! He is one of my favourite speakers!

[northkoreamania]

15:40 G1
16:10 G2
16:38 G3

29:30 milk

40:20 Sapia

48:20 Communism

51:50

[guillermobrand]

The difficult dimension of the power of human language if one does not know what “the Self” is about, and it is a fact that Everett does not know about it. For some reason, the Pirahá language is incomplete when compared to the language used by the rest of humanity. And it is in a fundamental aspect, which I will explain.
Even before human language emerged, living beings with a brain administered a "reality" that only referred to what was happening in the material environment in which their body was located. This makes a lot of sense, since the brain is an evolutionary tool that emerged to administer the material body, a material body that only exists in the Present. In fact, Matter only exists in the Present. With human language, a radical change occurs, since the Being arises, an entity that, being administered by the brain, manages to carry out actions that have no place in the Present. I must clarify that although the Being manages to carry out actions that have no place in the Present, most of the actions it performs have the Present as their theater of operation. This is not the case, for example, when I ask you "what did you have for lunch yesterday", because then the Being "travels in time / space", is situated in said yesterday, observes what he had for lunch, and induces you to describe what happened then . This is not the case of the Pirahá, who, as a consequence of the language they administer, their Being fundamentally dwells in the Present.
To understand what I mean, I suggest you read my explanation of Consciousness and Being. By the way, I am open to answering your questions.
I wrote the above in Spanish, and used the Google translator, so it is possible that the translation does not fully reflect the meaning of my language. I appeal to your intelligence.