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Logical properties such as negation, implication, and symmetry, despite the fact that they are foundational and threaded through the vocabulary and syntax of known natural languages, pose a special problem for language learning. Their meanings are much harder to identify and isolate in the child’s everyday interaction with referents in the world than concrete things (like spoons and horses) and happenings and acts (like running and jumping) that are much more easily identified, and thus more easily linked to their linguistic labels (spoon, horse, run, jump). Here we concentrate attention on the category of symmetry [a relation R is symmetrical if and only if (iff) for all x, y: if R(x,y), then R(y,x)], expressed in English by such terms as similar, marry, cousin, and near. After a brief introduction to how symmetry is expressed in English and other well-studied languages, we discuss the appearance and maturation of this category in Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL). NSL is an emerging language used as the primary, daily means of communication among a population of deaf individuals who could not acquire the surrounding spoken language because they could not hear it, and who were not exposed to a preexisting sign language because there was none available in their community. Remarkably, these individuals treat symmetry, in both semantic and syntactic regards, much as do learners exposed to a previously established language. These findings point to deep human biases in the structures underpinning and constituting human language.

This chapter briefly discusses the issues of symbols, meanings, and embodiment. It explains the solution to the symbol grounding problem. It illustrates the ingredients that are employed in the experiments about language emergence using a specific example of a color guessing game. It argues that these experiments show that there is an effective solution to the symbol grounding problem. The objective test for this claim is in the increased success of agents in the language games.

This chapter discusses the role played by the first generation of Hebrew-speaking children in the emergence processes of Modern Hebrew. As the education system was a major agent in the dissemination of Hebrew speech, the first section is dedicated to a detailed survey of the development of Hebrew education in Palestine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Next, the sociolinguistic aspects of speech revival are discussed, with particular reference to the crucial contribution of the introduction of preschool education in Hebrew. Finally, the chapter analyzes linguistic aspects of the process; it is suggested that insights gained from some well-studied cases of language emergence presented in the linguistic literature may be used to explain how a distinct, relatively uniform native variety emerged in Hebrew within a very short time span.