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 * This space is for sharing notes on the Slobin reading for Week 2 of Language and Species.**

1. __Question__: does ontogeny recapitulate phylogeny? That is, does the development of language in children tell us something about the evolution of language?

Bickerton: Children under two speak a "protolanguage" similar to that which early hominids must have used.

He uses the similar uttering of apes and toddlers as his basis.

Problem for B.: children don't actually use a protolanguage, especially when you look at other types of languages.

2nd problem: the order of onset of cognitive faculties is diff btw humans and non-human primates.

2. __Another question__: does diachrony recapitulate ontogeny?

Children's errors don't match changes in the language.

Language changes more in use than in the process of being used.

3. __3rd question__: can children create grammar?

Slobin says to some extent they can, specifically in gestural language