Mechanisms of language

Abstract

It seems likely that during a definite stage of the evolution of Homo sapiens a need for communication among different human beings had to arise; this communication would serve to transmit current (non-genetic) information concerning the surroundings, joint labour, etc. The appropriate means of interpersonal communication did indeed arise and is known as language. We will not discuss the details of its physical («technical») realization (by means of acoustic, visual, or other devices), because as the basis of our consideration we take the appropriate needs and informational mental structures, which are to be involved in the processes language deals with; only on the basis of these processes it seems reasonable to construct the «technical means» that serve these processes. So, what are the assumptions that would permit us to deductively construct a system of language? (The logic of our further considerations about the structure of language is illustrated by Figure 3.1.)

Perhaps, before one’s lips was born a whisper, In a pre-forest air were whirling leaves...

Osip Mandelstam, Octaves.