Overall Strategy
Are the vocalizations of birds, dogs or primates the same kind of thing as speaking English or
What sorts of things are English and Bengali? What properties do they have? Do barks and chirps
have the same properties?
What is language and how is it distinguished from other communication systems?
If language is different from animal communication systems, perhaps it arose from animal
Or is it a different system altogether?
Why are there so many languages? Life would be simpler is there was just one.
Languages change over time.
How do children learn language? Is it different from other kinds of learning? Different from the way animals learn to communicate?
The role of language in human interaction:
Does language just serve to communicate ideas? What function do dialects (ëaccents) serve?