Language Studies Tell Us About Ourselves

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Some scientists who study language are learning that language is far more complex than they had expected. Some linguists have even suggested that children already have some principles of language embedded in their brains when they are born.

For example, how would you turn the statement "The man is here" into a question? Even a child knows to move the word "is" to the beginning of the sentence to make it say, "Is the man here?" But how do you turn the statement, "The man who is tall is here" into a question? A child who followed the principle used in the last example should come up with, "Is the man who tall is here?" But that makes no sense. Nor do children make this mistake. Even children know instinctively to move not the first verb in this case but the main verb to yield "Is the man who is tall here?"

This exercise seems simple enough to us. And that's the point. The rule that governs this seemingly simple solution is difficult to express either in formal linguistic terms or in a computer program. Yet children instinctively solve this problem without ever being clearly taught any rules.

Human beings are unique. Saying that apes can learn language because they can learn some simple signs is like saying that humans can fly because they can jump. Linguistics is yet another area of knowledge which confirms what the Bible says about man being specially made and very different from the animals.