DİL CANLI BİR VARLIK MIDIR?

Dilin tanımlanması bilimsel bir sorundur. Tüm bilim insanlarını ikna eden bir dil tanımı yoktur. Son iki yüzyıl içinde çeşitli dilbilim teorileri dili tanımlamak ve betimlemek üzere pek çok girişimde bulunmuştur. Ancak bu teoriler çeşitli ilerlemelere imza atsa da dili tümüyle tanımlamakta ve özelliklerini betimlemekte yeterli değildir. Dilin biyolojik bir olgu veya bir organ olduğu da önemli iddialardan biridir. Bu yazıda “Dil canlı bir varlıktır” yargısı üzerinden bu görüşler tartışılmaktadır. Dilin biyolojik bir olgu olduğu, August Schleicher’dan bu yana dile getirilmektedir. İnsan biyolojisinin dili ortaya çıkaran farklılıkları vardır. Dil insanın soyutlama kapasitelerinin kesiştiği bir merkez gibidir. Bu nedenle dilin canlı bir varlık olduğu yargısı tek başına dili anlamamızda yeterli değildir. Dili bütünüyle doğru anlamak için bu farklı bilim dallarından gelecek bilgilerin sentezine gerek duyulmaktadır.

Is Language a Living Thing?

Defining language is a scientific problem. There is no one definition of language that convinces all scientists. Various linguistic theories have tried to define and describe language over the past two centuries. However, although these theories provide some important progress, they are not sufficient to fully define language and describe its features. It is also one of the important claims that language is a biological phenomenon or an organ. In this article, these views are discussed through the judgment "Language is a living thing". The fact that language is a biological phenomenon has been expressed since August Schleicher. Human biology has differences that create language. Language is like a center where human abstraction capacities intersect. For this reason, the judgment that language is a living thing is not sufficient for us. To fully grasp human language, a synthesis of information from these different branches of science is required.

___

  • Abe, K., & Watanabe, D. (2011). "Songbirds Possess the Spontaneous Ability to Discriminate Syntactic Rules". Nature Neuroscience, 14/8, 1067–1074.
  • Arbib, M. A. (2005). "From Monkey-Like Action Recognition to Human Language: An Evolutionary Framework for Neurolinguistics". Behavioral And Brain Sciences, 28/2: 105–124.
  • Arbib, M. A. (2006). "The Mirror System Hypothesis on the Linkage of Action and Languages". Action to Language via the Mirror Neuron System (ed. M. A. Arbib). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1-47.
  • Arbib, M. A. (2012). "Mirror Systems: Evolving Imitation and the Bridge from Praxis to Language". The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution (ed. K. Gibson- M. Tallerman). Oxford: Oxford University Press: 207-215.
  • Assael, Y., Sommerschield, T., Shillingford, B., Bordbar, M., Pavlopoulos, J., Chatzipanagiotou, M., Androutsopoulos, I., Prag, J., & Nando De Freitas, &. (2022). Restoring and Attributing Ancient Texts Using Deep Neural Networks. Nature, 603:7900, 603(7900): 280–283.
  • Austin, P. (2021). "Theory of Language: A Taxonomy". SN Social Sciences, 1/3: 1–24.
  • Benítez-Burraco, A., & Nikolsky, A. (2022). "The (Co)Evolution Of Language And Music Under Human Self-Domestication". Psyarxiv. 10.31234/osf.io/xfbqn.
  • Berwick, R. C., & Chomsky, N. (2016). Why Only Us: Language and Evolution. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press.
  • Berwick, R. C., Friederici, A. D., Chomsky, N., & Bolhuis, J. J. (2013). "Evolution, Brain, and The Nature of Language". Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17/2: 98.
  • Cattaneo, L., & Rizzolatti, G. (2009). "The Mirror Neuron System". Archives Of Neurology, 66/5: 557–560.
  • Chomsky, N. (2007). "Biolinguistic Explorations: Design, Development, Evolution". International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 15/1: 1–21.
  • Chomsky, N. (2009). Bilgi Sorunları ve Dil: Managua Dersleri (Çev. V. Kılıç). İstanbul: Bgst Yayınları.
  • Chomsky, N. (2014). Dı̇l ve Zı̇hı̇n (Çev. A. Kocaman-L. Aysever). İstanbul: Bilgesu.
  • Chomsky, N. (2019). Dil ve Zihin İncelemelerinde Yeni Ufuklar (çev. A. F. Aydar). İstanbul: Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınları.
  • Corballis, M. C. (2003). İşaretten Konuşmaya Dilin Kökeni ve Gelişimi (çev. A. Görey). İstanbul: Kitabevi.
  • Çüçen, A. K. (2012). Bilim Felsefesine Giriş. Bursa: Sentez.
  • Darwin, C. (2013). İnsanın Türeyişi (Çev. Ömer Ünalan). Ankara: Evrensel Yay.
  • Dawkins, R. (2014). Gen Bencildir (Çev. Tunç Tuncay Bilgin). İstanbul: Kuzey Yay.
  • de Saussure, F. (1998). Genel Dilbilim Dersleri (Çev. B. Vardar). İstanbul: Multilingual.
  • Ergin, M. (1993). Türk Dil Bilgisi. İstanbul: Bayrak Yay.
  • Everett, D. (2005). "Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã". Current Anthropology, 76/4: 621-646.
  • Everett, D. (2009). "Pirahã Culture and Grammar: A Response to Some Criticisms". Language, 85/2: 405–442.
  • Everett, D. (2012). Language: The Cultural Tool. New York: Pantheon Books.
  • Friederici, A. D., Chomsky, N., Berwick, R. C., Moro, A., & Bolhuis, J. J. (2017). "Language, Mind and Brain". Nature Human Behaviour, 1/10: 713–722.
  • Gentner, T. Q., Fenn, K. M., Margoliash, D., & Nusbaum, H. C. (2006). "Recursive Syntactic Pattern Learning By Songbirds". Nature, 440/7088: 1204–1207.
  • Goldin-Meadow, S., & Brentari, D. (2017). "Gesture, Sign, and Language: The Coming of Age of Sign Language and Gesture Studies". Behavioral And Brain Sciences, 40: 1–17.
  • Grodzinsky, Y., & Amunts, K. (Ed.). (2006). Broca’s Region. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Grodzinsky, Y., & Santi, A. (2008). "The Battle for Broca’s Region". Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12/12: 474–480.
  • Güzel, C. (2013). Bilim Felsefesi. İstanbul: Bilgesu.
  • Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W. T. (2002). "The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, And How Did It Evolve?". Science, 298: 1569–1579.
  • Hauser, M. D., Yang, C., Berwick, R. C., Tattersall, I., Ryan, M. J., Watumull, J., Chomsky, N., & Lewontin, R. C. (2014). "The Mystery of Language Evolution". Frontiers in Psychology, 5: 401.
  • Katz, J. J., & Postal, P. M. (1991). "Realism vs. Conceptualism in Linguistics". Linguistics and Philosophy, 14/5: 515–554.
  • Kerimoğlu, C. (2016). "Dilin Kökeni Arayışları I: Dilin Kökeniyle İlgili Akademik Tartışmalar". Dil Araştırmaları, 18: 47–84.
  • Kerimoğlu, C. (2017). "Dilin Kökeni Arayışları II: FOXP2 Geni". Dil Araştırmaları, 21: 35–50.
  • Koyré, A. (1994). Yeniçağ Biliminin Doğuşu: Bilimsel Düşüncenin Tarihi Üzerine İncelemeler (Çev. K. Dinçer). İstanbul: Gündoğan Yayınları.
  • Lenneberg, E. (1967). Biological Foundations of Language. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
  • Mithen, S. J. (2006). The Singing Neanderthals: The Origin of Music, Language, Mind and Body. Londra: Phoenix.
  • Nowak, M. A., & Krakauer, D. C. (1999). "The Evolution of Language". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 96/14: 8028–8033.
  • Nowak, M. A., Plotkin, J. B., & Jansen, V. A. A. (2000). "The Evolution of Syntactic Communication". Nature, 404/6777: 495–498.
  • Pagel, M., Atkinson, Q. D., & Meade, A. (2007). "Frequency of Word-Use Predicts Rates of Lexical Evolution throughout Indo-European History". Nature, 449/7163: 717–720.
  • Pagel, M., & Meade, A. (2018). "The Deep History of The Number Words". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1740).
  • Patel, A. D. (2008). Music, Language, and the Brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Pepperberg, I. M. (2021). "Nonhuman and Nonhuman-Human Communication: Some Issues and Questions". Frontiers in Psychology, 0, 4127.
  • Piattelli-Palmarini, M. (2013). "Biolinguistics Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow". The Cambridge Handbook of Biolinguistics (ed. C. Boeckx - K. K. Grohmann). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 12-21.
  • Piattelli-Palmarini, M. (2017). "From Zero to Fifty: Considerations on Eric Lenneberg’s Biological Foundations of Language and Updates" Biolinguistics, 11: 423–444.
  • Pinker, S. (2018). Dil İçgüdüsü: Zihin Dili Nasıl Meydana Getirir? (Çev. Feray İlgün). İstanbul: Bilge Kültür Sanat Yay.
  • Pinker, S., & Bloom, P. (1990). "Natural Language and Natural Selection". Brain and Behavioural Science, 13: 707–784.
  • Popper, K. R. (1998). Bilimsel Araştırmanın Mantığı (Çev. İlknur Aka). İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları.
  • Rendall, D. (2021). "Aping Language: Historical Perspectives on the Quest for Semantics, Syntax, and Other Rarefied Properties of Human Language in the Communication of Primates and Other Animals". Frontiers in Psychology, 0, 2888.
  • Rey, A., Perruchet, P., & Fagot, J. (2012). "Centre-Embedded Structures Are A By-Product of Associative Learning and Working Memory Constraints: Evidence from Baboons (Papio Papio)". Cognition, 123/1: 180–184.
  • Schleicher, A. (1869). Darwinism Tested by the Science of Language (Çev. A.V.W. Bikkers). Londra: John Camden Hoten.
  • Swadesh, M. (1952). "Lexico-Statistic Dating of Prehistoric Ethnic Contacts: With Special Reference to North American Indians and Eskimos". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. Studies Of Historical Documents in the Library of the American Philosophical Society , 96/4: 452–463.
  • Swadesh, M. (1955). "Towards Greater Accuracy in Lexicostatistic Dating". International Journal of American Linguistics, 21/2: 121–137.
  • Swadesh, M., Sherzer, J., & Hymes, D. H. (1971). The Origin and Diversification of Language. Chicago: Aldine Atherton.
  • Tekin, T. (2005). Makaleler 3 (ed. E. Yılmaz - N. Demir). Ankara: Grafiker.
  • Tremblay, P., & Dick, A. S. (2016). "Broca and Wernicke Are Dead, or Moving Past the Classic Model of Language Neurobiology". Brain and Language, 162: 60–71.
  • Varley, R. A., Klessinger, N. J. C., Romanowski, C. A. J., & Siegal, M. (2005). "Agrammatic But Numerate". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(9): 3519–3524.
  • Virginia Swisher, M. (1988). "Similarities and Differences Between Spoken Languages and Natural Sign Languages". Applied Linguistics, 9/4: 343–356.
  • Witzany, G. (2011). "Can Mathematics Explain The Evolution Of Human Language?" Communicative & Integrative Biology, 4/5: 516.
  • Yıldırım, C. (1991). Bilim Felsefesi. İstanbul: Remzi Kitabevi.
  • Zuberbühler, K. (2020). "Syntax and Compositionality in Animal Communication". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 375/1789: 20190062.