Language wizards and wolf children

Pupils from the primary and lower and upper secondary schools are exploring the human language

A background in linguistics and computational linguistics makes Per Anker Jensen what the Danish Language Council would call a language wizard. He has accepted to make his expertise available for the rest of the year and convince young people that language is fun and worth exploring through the campaign "Gang i sproget (get the language going)".

The puzzled researcher

His own interest in the study of the human language is based on two things.

- Firstly, a profound puzzlement about the miraculous fact that all children, no matter where they are born and who their parents are, are able to develop any language as their native language. Secondly, that linguistics through the past 50 years have undergone a revolutionary development. We are now able to describe the human language as formal mathematical systems, says Per Anker Jensen from the Department of International Studies and Computational Logistics.

Wolf children

Some of the visiting pupils are going to learn about how children in particular acquire a language. According to Per Anker Jensen, the foundations of the language are laid in the first six-seven years of the child's life. After that, it is hard to develop a language as a native language, as it then becomes impossible to learn only by listening.

- Small children have a special ability to acquire a language. Researchers are still trying to understand the interplay between what a child's brain brings along from birth and the linguistic impact from the child's environment. The so-called wild children, who are alleged to have been brought up by wolves and have been living in isolation from all types of human contact, will never develop a language, he says.

Language as a mathematical system

A mathematics line at an upper secondary school will also enjoy a visit from Per Anker Jensen.

- The pupils will probably be surprised to learn that human languages have abilities that can be described by mathematical tools. After all, linguistics have always been a humanistic issue. But these mathematical properties have had a crucial significance to how we understand the structure of human language and the fact that we can communicate with a computer by means of our own language, he says.

Facts

”Hire a language wizard” is part of the Danish Language Council's campaign ”Gang i sproget (get the language going)”.

50 two-hour lectures will be offered on a first come first serve basis.

It costs DKK 2000,- to hire one of the 28 language wizards.