This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Ruth Lectures.

This lecture in the series The Language Web, given by Jean Aitchison, was originally broadcast in 1996.

E.T., the well-known extraterrestrial, learnt human language fast.

His ear flap opened and he listened intently.

His circuits buzzed, dissimulating,

synthesizing. Thus inspired, the language centre of his marvellous brain came fully on.

Yet E.T.'s magical ability is almost matched by that of human children. As the American statesman Benjamin Franklin once said,

teach your child to hold his tongue.

He'll learn fast enough to speak.

Children talk so readily because they instinctively know in advance what languages are like.

As in a spider's web, the outline is pre-programmed,

and the network is built up in a preordained sequence.

The predictable way in which the language web develops will be the topic of this lecture,

including how adults can help,

or sometimes even slow down a child's progress.

Language has a biologically organised schedule.

Children everywhere follow a similar pattern.

In their first few weeks, babies mostly cry.

As Ronald Knox once said,

a loud noise at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

Crying exercises the lungs and vocal cords.

But crying may once have had a further evolutionary purpose.

...