# Christopher Columbus coming to America is the most significant thing to happen in our human species

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christopher-columbus-coming-to-america-is-the-most-significant-thing-to-happen-in-our-human-species/986066>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 24, 2023, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christopher-columbus-coming-to-america-is-the-most-significant-thing-to-happen-in-our-human-species/986066 "2023-06-24T23:10:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 72

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christopher-columbus-coming-to-america-is-the-most-significant-thing-to-happen-in-our-human-species/986066/72 "2023-06-28T11:16:42Z")

</div>

Language is a strong but problematic contender, as pointed out above.

A more specific, yet maybe more valid candidate in my opinion, is [linguistic recursion](https://www.thoughtco.com/recursion-grammar-1691901).

> [@](#):
>
> … the rules of the grammar must iterate in some manner to generate an infinite number of sentences, each with its specific sound, structure, and meaning. We make use of this ‘recursive’ property of grammar constantly in everyday life. We construct new sentences freely and use them on appropriate occasions

As far as I know, this property exists only in the language of our species. Thanks to it, there are literally no bounds to the number of sentences humans can understand and produce.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christopher-columbus-coming-to-america-is-the-most-significant-thing-to-happen-in-our-human-species/986066)._