Language: The Cultural Tool. Daniel L. Everett. Random House, Inc.

London 2012

The central hypothesis of this book reads as follows; human language is a tool and
therefore it was invented by man. Stating that it is a tool for thinking and
communicating and that it is shaped by culture. The author totally agrees on the
possibility of the two most important and opposite theories concerning language
acquisition, that is the nativist one, and the other which promotes the perspective that
language is a skill that can be learned the same as other skills like cooking, fishing,
etc. With the purpose of reaching the answer to test his hypothesis, the author takes
us to an incredible and marvelous trip towards the origins of language, how it evolved,
how it is manifested in our body, the way it is produced physically as well as
psychologically in our brains, minds, souls, or lungs, etc. He thoroughly describes
every aspect of it, giving us a fascinating and easy to understand perspective on the
study of Language. By the end of this trip or book, Professor Everett invites us to
engage in the course of the debate concerning the topic of the nature of human
language. In other words, it is an open ending, full of new information for most of us,
and full of new perspectives to continue in the search for more answers.

This book tells the story of Linguistics and how it has evolved, the different schools
and perspectives in which it is studied. From this point, we can realize how unstable
scientific knowledge can be, since a recently discovered paradigm can almost
instantaneously be questioned by another scholar, who has another perspective of the
subject and at the same time we discover how this perspective can be seen through
other person’s glasses.

He takes us to different places of this infinite world and in infinite times trying to
explain us how human beings produce language, how we convey meaning,
physically, mentally and socially. Nowadays, the most recognized theories about
language, see it as a separate phenomenon, that is isolated from environment, social
context, emotional ties, that is to say, as it were an independent object possible to be

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 examined exclusively in the domain of a laboratory. While he proposes the other
perspective, which is; studying language in social context, in community.

For him, the uniqueness of human language is the possibility of telling stories. In fact
he does it; masterly he reaches the target of telling the story of language, throughout
language, giving us the clues to understand and being absolutely aware of the utility
and importance of this social, cultural and, communicative tool. From his own
personal experience of more than thirty years of research in the Amazonian jungle,
he studied a tribal group The Pirahãs, among others. From his research, he has been
able of constructing a general and particular perspective of language. He has been
capable of having his own view of how language and its sciences are studied, and
therefore he has been able of recognizing and assigning as well, an important role to
the environment, the society, the family in which the individual is immersed, when
acquiring language. He pays attention to subtleties as tremendous as emotional ties
between mothers and babies, to mention some.
He also gives us proofs on how Hauser, Fitch and Chomsky “Theory of Recursivity”
as the unique human typical of language, is far from reality. Since this language, and
probably others, do not share this specific feature, at least inside the structure of the
sentence, although it is found in the telling of stories, as a mechanism of centering
the point of the story, in order to avoid external noises, typical of a jungle tribal group
and its natural environment.
Sometimes reading about language and linguistics is hard for us to understand, with
this book, it is certainly an exception to this general drawback, because, as I
mentioned before, telling a story, introducing stories within stories, he clearly
demonstrates that everything, even Linguistics, can be easily understood and worked
on. From Greeks myths, philosophy, history, familiar anecdotes, personal experiences
and of course, quotations from an immense array of scientific and history books, he
tells us and explains us every sentence and paragraph he tries to show us. Maybe he
can be hardly criticizes because of the fact of using such prosaic examples as some
coming from the mass media like films and pop culture.

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 He is very clear in stating in the introductory part of this book, his intention in writing
the book for the reader interested in the nature of language. He starts defining it, as
capable of allowing us to communicate the products of our minds to others, giving
extraordinarily detailed information as a kind of surgery in order to make the reader
tremendously immersed in the subject he is talking about.

The book has an introduction, then twelve chapters and finally a Conclusion. It is
divided into four parts. The first one; chapters one to four called Problems, where
there are displayed the problems of communication and survival faced by the first
men that walked the our planet, how their physical anatomy evolved up to the point
of getting an appropriate erected posture that permitted them to produce speech
sounds, and the first efforts and encounters produced resulting in the creation of the
first communities that let the performance of human language skills, and eventually
the gathering together around the bonfire, listening and telling stories. The second
part; from chapter five to chapter seven called Solutions. He names it this way,
because the communication problem gets an answer throughout the social context,
the biology basis of our human bodies and our own minds contribute in such a way,
which permits this incredible system, which is language, to exist. In this part he
accurately analyses the form and function of languages, from its minimal constituent;
the phoneme, up to the point of studying the sentence structure and maybe discourse.
Part three, named the Analysis, covers chapters eight and nine. He attempts to
demonstrate the way in which culture is the main agent that causes the form and
meaning of the different grammars and languages. Part four, from chapter ten to
chapter twelve, called Variation. He describes the different solutions to the language
problem of communication and how diversity of language as well as culture, is of
major importance when talking about survival of the species. In the last part, which
is the conclusion, the author tells us about his peaceful intention of creating a type of
dialogue among the different schools of thought, sciences, or theories concerning the
study of the language phenomena. Favoring mainly the perspective that sees the
connection between language and human values and society, which is a topic that

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 highly motivated the generation of American Linguists, the descriptivist. In the way
culture with its invisible hands, as he characterizes it, shapes languages as tools.

This book is an educational tool, since it fully describes and develops the subject
matter of language since its supposed origins until nowadays invented languages.
The way he takes us to this trip is amazingly attractive, since he tells a story, full of
vivid and rich images which help him and us to develop and to discover all the
richness throughout language itself, the language of this story.

This book seems transcendental to me, since it is not the typical cryptic one you study
at university. I consider it could be used, as a tool to explain the wonder of language
in real life, real time and, real stories. Even his own personal reflections about how
us, as human beings received this gift or punishment from the Hebrew god, as it says
in the Bible, caused the division of languages in order to avoid men’s communication,
in such a way men could not be able of working together, or in other words
cooperating among themselves, because they could be his competitors removing his
power from earth, and in his conclusion, reveals that the author is a great and big soul
that deserves the highest respect and appreciation.

As I could understand from reading this book postures concerning language

acquisition are absolutely opposed and one scholar can refute, as well as, accept
another theory, but why not integrating them all, and looking for the best way of
finding or reaching the real truth of knowledge, in an effort of cooperation as
supposedly men used to work before the myth of Babel’s Tower.

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