Being able to produce complex languages is one of the key aspects that differentiate us from other animals. It is responsible for our ability of creating knowledge and storing it. It's how we are able to write expensive Psychology text books and study them. But how did language develop? Was it part of our intuition or completely fabricated by our developing social structures?
The image below recreates an example of sound symbolism in the course text book. Which of the images would you say is a "takete?" Which is a "maluma?"
You probably labeled the top image as the "maluma" and the bottom as the "takete." But do we make these connections from gibberish to an image because of our already present knowledge of language or because they play to our intuition?
A video shown in my Linguistics class illustrates a similar point. Do you understand what the porcupine is "saying?" What do you think it is trying to communicate? Why do you think that way?
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