From what has been said, it must be clear that no one can make
very positive statements about how language originated.
There is no material in any language today and in the earliest (S1) _________
records of ancient languages shows us language in a new and (S2) _________
emerging state. It is often said, of course, that the language (S3) _________
originated in cries of anger, fear, pain and pleasure, and the necessary (S4) _________
evidence is entirely lacking: there are no remote tribes, no ancient
records, providing evidence of a language with a large proportion of (S5) _________
such cries than we find in English. It is true that the absence
of such evidence does not disprove the theory, but in other grounds (S6) _________
too the theory is not very attractive. People of all races and languages
make rather similar noises in return to pain or pleasure. The fact that (S7) _________
such noises are similar on the lips of Frenchmen and Malaysians,
whose languages are utterly different, serves to emphasize on the (S8) _________
fundamental difference between these noises and language proper.
We may say that the cries of pain or chortles of amusement are largely
reflex actions, instinctive to large extent, whereas language proper (S9) _________
does not consist of signs but of these that have to be learnt and (S10) _________
that are wholly conventional.