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This chapter is concerned with earlier definitions of degrammaticalization, with the aim to demarcate the book's own definition from these earlier views. It discusses the alternative terms of regrammaticalization and antigrammaticalization, as well as number of changes that have been used as (near )synonyms of degrammaticalization, including lexicalization of affixes and function words, exaptation, and replacement. Degrammaticalization is defined as a composite change whereby a gram in a specific context gains in autonomy or substance on one or more linguistic levels. This chapter argues that degrammaticalization is a change in context, and that there are no degrammaticalization clines. Furthermore, it provides an outline of a taxonomic system to classify degrammaticalization changes, based on Lehmann's ‘parameters of grammaticalization’, arguing that these parameters work in degrammaticalization as well.

This chapter documents the historical creation of English reflexive pronouns in the 1500s from Old English which lacked them. The chapter evokes two general principles of change, decay and inertia; one specifically linguistic principle of change, generalization; and two universal bounding conditions, full intrepretation and anti‐synonymy.

This chapter talks about the results achieved, and in particular, the contribution to research that the system studied makes on the origins of speech. It shows that the generality and simplicity of the assumptions constructed into the artificial system, and the fact that they suffice for speech code to self-organize, allows scientists to construct a convincing adaptationist scenario in which the neural structures have been chosen by natural selection driven by pressure for linguistic communication.

This chapter is a case study in syntactic reanalysis leading to grammaticalization. It investigates the history of Modern Irish comparative particle ná 'than', and shows how it has developed phonologically, morphologically, and syntactically from an Old Irish phrase ol/ind daäs 'beyond how it is'. Two reanalyses are proposed: first, the verb daäs in T is reanalyzed as C in gapping contexts; second, C (daäs) is cliticized to P (ol) and reanalyzed as a morphological part of P in subcomparatives. The chapter shows that the first reanalysis can be characterized as formal grammaticalization, while the second does not appear formal grammaticalization (upward reanalysis), but merely 'morphologization'; although it is grammaticalization in the strictly functional sense. Besides the two reanalyses, the chapter explains several surface extensions of these reanalyses: loss of tense marking, changes in case marking, and exaptation/analogical reformation of verbal agreement marking as the comparative marker became more particle-like.

Since language structure is obviously not specifically designed to facilitate communication the question of the origin of the restriction on possible languages emerges. This constitutes a major problem for we may not be able to reconstruct the selective pressure which generated them. Historical parallels are investigated where brain activity was thought to be

The chapter will address the notion of embodiment from a neuroscientific perspective, by emphasizing the crucial role played by bodily relations and sociality on the evolution and development of distinctive features of human cognition. The neurophysiological level of description is here accounted for in terms of bodily-formatted representations and discussed by replying to criticisms recently raised against this notion. The neuroscientific approach here proposed is critically framed and discussed against the background of the Evo-Devo focus on a little explored feature of human beings in relation to social cognition: their neotenic character. Neoteny refers to the slowed or delayed physiological and/or somatic development of an individual. Such development is largely dependent on the quantity and quality of interpersonal relationships the individual is able to establish with her/his adult peers. It is proposed that human neoteny further supports the crucial role played by embodiment, here spelled out by adopting the explanatory framework of embodied simulation, in allowing humans to engage in social relations, and make sense of others’ behaviors.This approach can fruitfully be used to shed new light onto non propositional forms of communication and social understanding and onto distinctive human forms of meaning making, like the experience of man-made fictional worlds.

Since Darwin, multilevel selection has been the key concept of the hierarchical approach to evolution. The debate around the significance of group selection as an evolutionary phenomenon (in both an early controversial version and subsequent mathematical definition) has been the main entrance to multilevel selection theories. We present here a historical sketch of the debate prior to the formalization proposed by Samir Okasha. We also consider two extensions of Okasha’s multilevel theory: the diachronic perspective made possible by the study of major evolutionary transitions; the cross-level exaptive by-products. The double hierarchy, first proposed by Niles Eldredge and Stanley Salthe is a different kind of multilevel approach to evolution that avoids some theoretical impasses produced by a strictly selection-centered approach to extend the levels of evolutionary change. We argue that a dual hierarchical approach has a major heuristic power in order to embrace the complexity of evolutionary phenomena, from molecules to ecosystems, and is a candidate for an updated and unifying meta-theory of evolutionary patterns.

One's theory of the origins of language is intimately linked with one's particular theory of language: the evolutionary scenario depends on what the properties of language are according to that linguistic theory. Theories so far fail to account for the emergence of language with the properties it has because they have an incorrect theory of what language is, most crucially, an overly computational view. I propose a theory based on the fact that language is a system of signs that link concepts and percepts, revisiting some foundational ideas developed by Saussure. As a consequence, in some instances, the interpretation of what is going on differs quite significantly from what is currently assumed in mainstream linguistics.

This chapter examines the role of music as an emergent exaptation of the later hominin lineage. It describes a model that provides a basis for considering music and language to be analogous systems of communication and suggests that language was an adaptive factor in human evolution and played an important role in enabling and sustaining cognitive and social proficiency. It also contends that music emerged as a consequence of the progressive extension and stage differentiation of the juvenile period in the later hominin lineage.

This chapter summarizes the most important aspects of the entire book. Writing an abstract of a summary can result in a ‘bouillon cube’ of information that is nearly incomprehensible, so this sticks to the most far-reaching observations and conclusions. The structure–function unit referred to here as the respiratory faculty did not just suddenly appear, but rather bits and pieces of it are recognizable even in most basally branching metazoan lineages. The use of mitochondria in an aerobic atmosphere to produce large amounts of energy-carrying molecules precipitated a kind of arms race, whereby the individuals that could compete better for food sources or become predatory could become part of an evolutionary cascade. These new animals moved into another realm, but the old ones did not necessarily disappear: they just did what they always did, maybe a little better. In the most diverse lineages of invertebrates and craniotes we see similar changes appearing: gills with counter-current exchange, highly specialized oxygen-carrying proteins, a partly or completely closed circulatory system that includes the gas exchange organs, lungs. The more extreme the grounds for specialization, the more similar are these structures and functions. Often the functional result remains unchanged or becomes improved while the anatomical cause changes dramatically, but just as often structures change little but minor functions become major ones: a phenomenon called exaptation. This book has looked at most major animal groups and these principles turn up everywhere. It talks about multidimensional forces at work in a multidimensional world, and respiration is the keystone to it all.

This chapter discusses whether an account of language evolution should see language as a communication system in the strong sense that it evolved for communication or in the weak sense that it evolved for some other purpose and was then exapted for communication. It examines two main accounts of language as a communication system in the strong sense, those of Millikan and Scott-Phillips, and concludes that both fall under similar objections: given the strong context-dependency of linguistic communication, neither of them gives a satisfying account of language evolution, because both assume a Constructionist view of language, which is inescapable on the assumption that language is a communication system in the strong sense. On the view that language is a communication system in the weak sense, these objections disappear. This implies a dual account of language: why it first evolved and how it was then exapted for communication.

Probably no process epitomizes life more than respiration. By respiration we mean the cascade of energy-producing biochemical reactions called oxidative phosphorylation, powered by a gradient of oxidation. Structure and function are intimately connected, forming an entity called a faculty. In this book, we focus on the functional and evolutionary morphology of the respiratory faculty, many of the components of which are older than the first animals, indeed older than life itself. The initial steps until the first animals arose are summarized here in a hypothetical scenario and provided together with an introduction to several other conceptual approaches that we have adhered to throughout this book.

Human beings have a unique basic drive to “communicate by symbols”. This chapter posits that this behaviour has been exaptated, leading to artwork production and appreciation. The neurobiological bases of such behaviour is analysed, surveying neuroimaging investigations in neuroaesthetics. The main findings have been interpreted within the framework of the hypothesis on the existence of functional modules in the brain, organized as Russian dolls that are assembled via wiring, and volume transmission in mosaics capable of complex integrative actions. The concept of redeployment of a neural structure for a new function is used to support the possibility of the assembly of functional different mosaics from the same set of FMs. Insula and ACC triggering the activation of reward circuits in response to artworks might explain the aesthetic response. The peculiarities and possible role of von Economo neurons present in the ACC and FI are discussed from evolutionary and neurochemical perspectives.

The focus in this chapter is on why honor killing ever came into existence as a social practice. The units for analysis are sociocultural systems and ecological pressures on the demographic groups among whom honor killing evolved. Here a population-level model of cultural evolution is employed to advance an argument for the best explanation for the development of honor killing. Only cultural systems performing adaptive functions continued among early desert nomads and pastoralist of the arid mountain uplands. Historical and anthropological research supports claims that severe ecological challenges led to two major functional systems: consanguine hierarchical patriarchy and the segmentary lineage system. Honor killing likewise evolved, first as a costly signaling system to avert loss of female reproductive assets and to avoid group splintering. It later evolved further as an exaptation and as a means of avoiding blood-related conflicts within segmentary lineage systems.