animals and human language ANIMALS AND HUMAN LANGUAGE | Page 12

Cultural transmission
This process whereby a language is passed on
from one generation to the next is
described as cultural transmission. It is clear
that humans are born with some kind of
predisposition to acquire language in a general
sense. However, we are not born with
the ability to produce utterances in a specific
language such as English. We acquire our
first language as children in a culture.
While we may inherit physical features such as brown eyes
and dark hair from our
parents, we do not inherit their language. We acquire a
language in a culture with other
speakers and not from parental genes. An infant born to
Korean parents in Korea, but
adopted and brought up from birth by English speakers in
the United States, will have
physical characteristics inherited from his or her natural
parents, but will inevitably
speak English. A kitten, given comparable early
experiences, will produce meow
regardless.