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London Region – Feb 3rd Human Instinct for Language. Log on 5.30 Zoom Talk

Alan Freeland: Our human instinct for language Language is perhaps our most important invention. It gives us the best of times and the worst of times. In this talk we focus on verbal communication and look at how and why language arose, how languages are similar and different, and how and why they change. We will learn why we say mice infestation but not rats infestation, what the Intestines Affairs Ministry does, what children think our cutlery should be called, how we learnt to talk about time, and how ‘evidentials’ could improve our social media. Alan had a long career in IT and is now an active member of Farnham u3a, running the AI group and giving talks for the History and Art History groups. Previously he ran for three years a Silk Roads group and for a year a group called The Art and Science of Communication where this talk comes from.

https://lru3a.u3asite.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2025.01-OnlineTalksJan-Mar.pdf