# What's up with the dictionary?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-dictionary/500838>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 24, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-dictionary/500838 "2009-06-24T15:16:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-the-dictionary/500838/21 "2009-06-25T15:36:08Z")

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> [@SmashTheState](#):
>
> The existence of archetypes tells us that we are not born _tabula rasa_, and that certain images and concepts are inherent in the structure and operating system of the human brain. According to anthropologist Julian Jaynes, it is no coincidence that we use words to communicate with each other; words were, he believed, developed by the human brain as the most efficient possible way of communicating between the two language centres of the brain prior to the rise of consciousness, effiency being necessary because the bundle of nerve fibres is only a few thousand neurons thick. It is on the basis of these few basic, universal, archetypal, Platonic ideals that we can construct the rest of our language.

Oh, for Pete’s sake. In addition to what I said about Jaynes in [the other thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11278272#post11278272), let me say it here about language. Not only was what he wrote pseudoscience, it’s 30 years out of date pseudoscience. We have learned so much about the brain and hominid history since then that citing him about language is like citing him about the Obama administration.

If people want to read a book about the origins of language that uses the latest science and will truly make you think, I highly recommend [Adam’s Tongue: How Humans Made Language, How Language Made Humans, by Derek Bickerton](http://www.amazon.com/Adams-Tongue-Humans-Made-Language/dp/0809022818/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245943614&sr=1-1). He does not give answers to unanswerable questions. Rather he forces you to look at the subject and ask what the proper questions actually are. I found that process especially fascinating.

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