#ray jackendoff

The fact that we can talk (and cats can't) seems so obvious that it hardly bears mention. But just because it's obvious doesn't mean it's easy to explain. Think of another perfectly obvious, well-known phenomenon: the fact that metals turn red when you heat them enough. Why does this happen? It could be otherwise—­they might just as well turn green or not change color at all. It's a simple phenomenon, easily observable, but the explanation isn't simple at all. It turns out to involve at the very least the theories of electromagnetic radiation and quantum mechanics, two of the more amazing intellectual advances of the past century. So it is, I want to suggest, with the human ability to use language.

Dinner with Ray Jackendoff tonight