Speechߞman´s natural communication

Most of the universe runs along perfectly well without the need of speech for command and control. Why, then, does man need speech? How did he acquire speech? Can it be optimized? What is the future of this form of communication? These questions were put to a group of men who have done distinguished work in diverse fields relevant to speech. Their provocative discussions, reported here, do not add up to a definitive or overall unified theoretical structure such as scientists love to build; nor could they at this stage. Certainly, for those who look closely at speech and language there is no question that the subject is mysterious and complex. It may be that language is mysterious because it is too close to us, too deeply imbedded in the inherited structure of the human organism for us to "see" it. However it is, there is no doubt that many of the questions and ideas raised here belong in the vortex of concerns of all those who are interested in human communications.ߞN.L.