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How important is it to learn language rather than create it?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2024

Susan Goldin-Meadow Open the ORCID record for Susan Goldin-Meadow [Opens in a new window]
Susan Goldin-Meadow*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA http://goldin-meadow-lab.uchicago.edu/
*
Corresponding author: Susan Goldin-Meadow; Email: sgm@uchicago.edu
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Abstract

I focus here on concepts that are not part of core knowledge – the ability to treat people as social agents with shareable mental states. Spelke proposes that learning language from another might account for the development of these concepts. I suggest that homesigners, who create language rather than learn it, may be a potential counterexample to this hypothesis.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 47 , 2024 , e127
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

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