“We have a love of words. Think crosswords, Scrabble and texting. Think chatting to a friend, listening to a story, sharing a joke or hearing a speech by the orator of your choice – Churchill, Obama or Mandela. Moreover, we are never satisfied with the words we have, frequently changing their meanings and inventing new ones. Think tablets, clouds and surfing.
Where do you keep all of those words? How do you know which ones to use, and how to combine them to make a statement or ask a question that someone else will understand?
“Just as we love words, we know their power and may fear their consequences. We know how a few ill-thought-out words can damage a relationship and flunk an interview, how eloquent politicians can sway a crowd, how words can abuse and offend, how words can rouse people to hatred, violence and war. We tolerate and suffer the consequences of such words because of our unbounded desire to talk and listen to what others have to say.
“Your lexicon love affair began in childhood. Before reaching the age of one you were likely saying your first words and knew the meaning of several hundred. Within your second year, you had started combining words into simple sentences while learning new ones at an average rate of nine a day. That rate continued unbated until your adolescence, maybe even learning two or more languages at once. How were you able to acquire language in such a pace?
“The answer is you had your parents, careers, family, and friends for help. You inherited a genetic predisposition to acquire language from your biological parents, which was realized by growing up amid people who were continuously using words, whether spoken or signed. Your parents had done likewise, helped by their own parents, family, friends, and wider community. And so on, back through the generations. But how did it begin? And when?”