Confronting Friends and Family

[Hovik]

Language is another example of something governed by "laws" that is found in complex systems; but is not a part of any of its individual components. No one has yet come up with the full theory on linguistics. It's something we can observe, it's something we can use, it's something found in the system, but it's not in the components. It develops and grows without any permanent physical link to its components. It is implicit that a system such as ours will necessarily give rise to it, we don't know why, we don't know the rules (or if you like laws) and we can't predict its behaviour, at present.

There isn't a unifying theory of linguistics, but there are quite a few very good models out there. As for your assertion that we don't know the rules of language, you're pretty far from the mark. We actually understand quite a lot about language (although there are always a hundred questions popping up with every answer). Also, we can predict the behavior of language in certain respects.

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean by the statement "not part of any of its individual components." Care to elaborate on that a little bit? How are you defining "the system" and "components"?