The Origin of Language and the Co-Evolution of Literacy and Conceptualization

by Prof. Robert K. Logan

Living Literacies
The Living Literacies conference was appropriately named from this author’s perspective because one of the theses of this essay is that verbal language is a living organism. This living organism, human language, has continued to evolve since its first emergence as speech, so that speech, writing, mathematics, science, computing and the Internet form an evolutionary chain of six distinct languages (Logan 1995; 2000a). The third theme we will explore is that a complete education entails mastery of all six languages (ibid.) hence the appropriateness of the plural form in the title Living Literacies. Literacy for me includes not only the literacy associated with reading and writing, but also orality, numeracy, science literacy, computer literacy, and Internet literacy. For the purposes of our discussion, science literacy entails an understanding of the scientific method and a passing acquaintance with the popular science literature and some of the basic principles of science. Computer literacy and Internet literacy entail the ability to use computers and the Internet respectively to access, create, process, and share information.

The subtitle of our conference, “What does it mean to read and write now?”, appropriately generalized to include all six forms of literacy, provided me with the inspiration for my presentation and this essay.

One obvious response to this questions is that to read and write now is to be able to access, transmit, and create information. Given my notion that there are six forms of verbal language, this ability to access, transmit and create information includes all forms of information: oral, literary, mathematical, scientific, and computer or Internet based. But to read and write now also mean one has an increased power of conceptualization, and that is the novel point I hope to make with this essay, namely, that there is an intimate connection between literacy and the ability to conceptualize or think abstractly.