• The structures do not represent the culture but may reflect categories of mind. Recent theories of universal grammar examine these categories.
• No L lacks subtlety of espression or complexity of linguistic elements.
• Subtlety of expression can be augmented by vocabulary and will be when the culture “feels” the need e.g. the Christian Gospels reachng the northern Germanic, Celtic and Slavic tribes.
• L vary in the areas of complexity and subtlety, cf. simple phonemic inventory of Polynesian L, the progressive tenses of English and Spanish cf. with the Latin tense system, aspectual richness of Slavic L., etc.
• Nevertheless, there is no case of a L unable to express a full range of notions and functions and L routinely develop by reaching for ways to express currents of thought and art and philosophy. Evidence of this can be found in the etymology of many words associated with higher level thinking e.g. ecstasy means “cause to stand or place outside” or, as we say in English, “beside oneself”. Body metaphors are extremely common for expressing such ideas.
• An example of man’s need to create L to express himself is seen in the transformation of pidgin L into creoles. Children growing up hearing only Pidgin soon create a fully expressive L called a Creole (pidgin and creole are here used as technical terms).
• Given this natural drive to communicate, people finding themselves in contact with another L community absorb as much of the L as they need.
• Classroom teaching of L2 should reproduce the conditions in which people naturally acquire another L.
• Because our understanding of how L is acquired is not fixed and because the aforementioned conditions are hard to create, teachers should proceed pragmatically and empirically.
HUMANITIES/ARTS
• Only the high L have subtlety of expression and compexity. One does not have to examine these other L to know that, i.e. an empirical look at these other L is unnecessary since it is obvious from the fact that the culture these other L bear is not a high culture that they cannot be high L.
• High L express notions and functions and thoughts unavailable to L not bearing high cultures. Once those cultures become high cultures, their L will become high L in order to bear the load.
• The directed development of L can be charted in the history of the L of many high cultures. Words become imbued with the sense imparted to them by the creators of high culture.
• Creoles are extreme deviations from the proper, educated speech, reflecting the low social status of their speakers.
• Speakers of Creoles should aspire to the acrolect e.g. French for Haitian Creole (Kweyol) speakers, rather than creating literature in a L regarded as a degenerate form the acrolect.
• Any L learning outside a classroom setting is by nature unguided and perforce rough-and-ready. Lack of control and ignorance of standards permit only a pidgin at worst or a mimicking of acceptable speech at best. Careful and cultivated speech can be created only by careful and cultivated instruction carried out by careful and cultivated people.
• Two thousand years of culture permit us to be sure of best practices as sown, watered, fertilized, and pruned by our predecessors. Turning our back on this heritage is a crime and jumping on new fads will rip this heritage apart because only the most dedicated persistent effort will prepare a teacher to pass this heritage on. There is no room for fads.
• Such a well-prepared teacher can and will succeed given similarly prepared students. Lacking such