One thing that has fascinated me for a long time is the whole area surrounding communication and language. We are, after all, as a species compulsive communicators. We may not be (and are most likely not to be) the only species that communicates but we do do it rather a lot. The questions I have about this include: Why do we communicate? How did this communication originate? How did language originate? Where did languages diverge from each other? Why are there similarities and differences between certain human languages?
I know there are minds greater than mine pondering these questions and that I can only, of necessity, study them on a somewhat simplistic level. Indeed I do not even pretend to have any answers. I do, however, have some thoughts which I will lay out in the coming weeks. However let me initially look at the first question: "Why do we communicate?"
If the reason were only to get what we want then any communications would simply be a series of negotiations. I have tried to analyse my communications recently and whilst there are a lot of communications that do fall under this category there are some that don't. As an example: I see a man walking under a ladder when a workman above drops a brick. I shout to warn the person. That is communication but, as far as I can see, was not communication that gains me anything but it is communication nonetheless. So either there is more than one reason why we communicate or there is a deeper, more fundamental reason. My own personal feeling (and this is just a feeling. I have, as yet, no objective foundation for it) is that there is a more fundamental reason. I think it will be useful to investigate this in depth. Who knows maybe a universal truth lies hidden at the heart of the question. Communication is, after all, something that binds all humanity together. It is what we all have in common.
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