Both facial expressions and language have been ingrained into our genes. Regardless of upbringing, all people (without serious handicaps) can recognize body language, especially facial expressions, and understand their meanings. There is even research that indicates dogs have been domesticated to the point that they also understand a wide range of human facial expressions. They handily beat out chimps when it comes to guessing what we're feeling.
Where language is concerned, we certainly don't know words instinctively, but we do know instinctively how language works in general. In some cases, when twins are young they will develop their own means of communicating. These "languages" follow similar rules to language in general. And, languages across the world all follow the same sort of structural rules.
And one more thing: I thought the universal language was Esperanto!
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Last edited by CoachAlan; 07-28-2004 at 08:16 PM..
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