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Epilogue: A Vision of Unity

David F. Armstrong and Sherman E. Wilcox

in The Gestural Origin of Language

This concluding chapter presents a summary of the main argument of the book, which is that signed languages are in an important sense not unique, that they are merely manifestations of the human ... More

This concluding chapter presents a summary of the main argument of the book, which is that signed languages are in an important sense not unique, that they are merely manifestations of the human language ability, unfamiliar only because language scientists of the time were not familiar with deaf people and their natural languages. It has been proposed that transformation of gesture into language lies at the heart of the origin of language, that just as grammaticization-as-ritualization accounts for the change from lexical to grammatical, it also accounts for the transformation of gesture into language. Ritualization is implicated in the phylogenetic evolution of language from nonlinguistic behaviours, with visible gestures playing a key role.Less

From Protolanguage to Language

Derek Bickerton

in The Speciation of Modern Homo Sapiens

This chapter discusses the singularity of human language. Although evolution is normally conceived of as a gradual process, it can produce an appearance of catastrophism where functions change or ... More

This chapter discusses the singularity of human language. Although evolution is normally conceived of as a gradual process, it can produce an appearance of catastrophism where functions change or where gradual changes in two or more components impinge on one another. The fossil and archaeological records argue strongly for some such development in the case of human language. The discussion argues that language as people know it requires the conjunction of three things: an event structure derived from reciprocal altruism; the capacity to use unstructured symbolic units (protolanguage); and sufficient ‘spare’ neurones to maintain the coherence of internally generated messages in brains designed by evolution to attend primarily to the environment. These developments co-occurred only in the human species, accounting for the uniqueness of human language.Less

A World of Many (Fewer) Voices

K. David Harrison

in When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge

This chapter begins by discussing the fate of human languages. It tells that by the end of this century, only about half of the languages used today may still be spoken. It describes the experiences ... More

This chapter begins by discussing the fate of human languages. It tells that by the end of this century, only about half of the languages used today may still be spoken. It describes the experiences of some of the people who speak a language with 10 or fewer speakers. It explains that languages do not literally die or go extinct; rather they are crowded out by bigger languages, for small tongues get abandoned by their speakers who stop using them in favour of a more dominant, prestigious, or widely known tongue. It adds that language disappearance is an erosion or extinction of ideas and ways of knowing and ways of talking about the world and human experience. It also discusses how languages are lost, as well as the hotspots of language diversity. It explains that human cultural heritage and human cognition vanish when a language is lost.Less

Endangered Number Systems: Counting to Twenty on Your Toes

K. David Harrison

in When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge

This chapter discusses that human languages, when counting, not only have different names for the numbers but also use a wide variety of mathematical strategies. It explores unusual counting systems ... More

This chapter discusses that human languages, when counting, not only have different names for the numbers but also use a wide variety of mathematical strategies. It explores unusual counting systems found in small and endangered language. It adds that some may have no numbers at all, or such limited counting that scientists have questioned whether counting is even necessary to human cultural and intellectual life. It highlights that the wide variety of counting strategies and routines available to humans depend on what language they happen to speak. It examines how people who primarily have body-counting do arithmetic. It states that infants, long before they talk, show evidence of innate abilities to grasp numerical concepts. It also talks about the lack of numbers in Amazonian language Piraha.Less

Communication

Brandon C. Wheeler, William A. Searcy, Morten H. Christiansen, Michael C. Corballis, Julia Fischer, Christoph Grüter, Daniel Margoliash, Michael J. Owren, Tabitha Price, Robert Seyfarth, and Markus Wild

in Animal Thinking: Contemporary Issues in Comparative Cognition

This chapter reviews what has been learned about animal thinking from the study of animal communication and considers what we might hope to learn in the future. It begins with a discussion on the ... More

This chapter reviews what has been learned about animal thinking from the study of animal communication and considers what we might hope to learn in the future. It begins with a discussion on the importance of informational versus non-informational interpretations of animal communication and then considers what inferences can be drawn about the cognitive requirements of communication from the communicative abilities of simple organisms. It discusses the importance of context to the meaning of animal signals and the possibility of asymmetries in the neural processes underlying production versus reception. Current theories on the evolution of human language are reviewed and how the study of animal communication informs these theories.Less

Intersubjectivity—mutual management of cognitive states

Arie Verhagen

in Constructions of Intersubjectivity: Discourse, Syntax, and Cognition

This chapter argues that solving small grammatical puzzles involves some fundamental decisions on basic assumptions about human language and especially meaning. The work shows that the fact that a ... More

This chapter argues that solving small grammatical puzzles involves some fundamental decisions on basic assumptions about human language and especially meaning. The work shows that the fact that a particular general view makes it possible to solve a number of more and less classic specific grammatical problems constitutes evidence for the usefulness of this general view. The chapter also describes major theoretical issues on human specialization, common ground and the construal configuration, human and animal communication, and the theory of argumentativity. The roles of argumentation and auxiliary syntax in the balance between objectivity and intersubjectivity are illustrated in Dutch and English. The prospects of adopting a usage-based, constructional approach to grammar are explained.Less

Facts about human language relevant to its evolution

Steven Pinker

in Origins of the Human Brain

This chapter contends that an important source of evidence that has been neglected in the study of language evolution is the language itself. Thus, in this chapter, some basic facts about the ... More

This chapter contends that an important source of evidence that has been neglected in the study of language evolution is the language itself. Thus, in this chapter, some basic facts about the structure, psychology, neurology, and genetics of the human language faculty significant to its evolution are assessed. Based on the reviewed evidence, the chapter asserts that language is part of human biology, not human culture, and should be best thought of as a neural system, a computational module, and a mental organ. Also, language is complex computationally, neurologically, and genetically. Though the facts that are presented do not support anything like a full theory of language evolution, much less a phylogenetic sequence, the chapter asserts that they are adequate to refute popular assumptions, have strong implications about the relevant evolutionary forces, and offer suggestions about where to look further.Less

Where Do Words Come From?

Daniel Cloud

in The Domestication of Language: Cultural Evolution and the Uniqueness of the Human Animal

This chapter revives the idea that our existing languages are partly the product of ongoing human invention and human judgment, that particular individuals did, and still do, play a role in deciding ... More

This chapter revives the idea that our existing languages are partly the product of ongoing human invention and human judgment, that particular individuals did, and still do, play a role in deciding what our language will be like that is something like the role of Quine's imagined “syndics.” It argues that it is not that our languages were deliberately invented by particular groups of people, legislators, or syndics in the formal sense of those words, sitting around particular tables, at particular times in the past. It seems that they are more like our dogs, our wolfhounds, and sheepdogs. We did not invent them exactly, but our ancestors did repeatedly make deliberate, more or less rational choices in the process that made them what they are today—choices among a long series of slightly incrementally different variants, unconsciously shaping the dogs into precisely what their human breeders needed them to be.Less

Hidden Texture

Andrea Moro

in The Boundaries of Babel: The Brain and the Enigma of Impossible Languages

This chapter starts by addressing methodological issues as applied to linguistics, which include simplicity, errors, and formalism. It then introduces some fundamental aspects of human languages. The ... More

This chapter starts by addressing methodological issues as applied to linguistics, which include simplicity, errors, and formalism. It then introduces some fundamental aspects of human languages. The chapter concludes with a naturalistic example that linguists mention to show how biologically determined language acquisition models are present in nature in species other than humans.Less

Animality, Language, and Truth

Vanessa Lemm

in Nietzsche's Animal Philosophy: Culture, Politics, and the Animality of the Human Being

This chapter argues that Friedrich Nietzsche's criticism on metaphysics aims at a renewal of the meaning of philosophy as the pursuit of truth. It contends that throughout his ... More

This chapter argues that Friedrich Nietzsche's criticism on metaphysics aims at a renewal of the meaning of philosophy as the pursuit of truth. It contends that throughout his work, Nietzsche maintains the controversial claim that truth is a metaphor and that consideration of truth is inseparable from a consideration of language. He argues that since truth is a metaphor, it fails to capture life and, moreover, metaphors are rationalizations and abstractions that destroy life. Nietzsche also believes that animal silence is the source of the metaphorical character of human animal language.Less

The Human Speech Code

Pierre-Yves Oudeyer

in Self-Organization in the Evolution of Speech

This chapter begins by discussing the parts and functions of the human instrument of speech — the vocal tract. It talks about how the auditory system perceives sounds. It then discusses articulatory ... More

This chapter begins by discussing the parts and functions of the human instrument of speech — the vocal tract. It talks about how the auditory system perceives sounds. It then discusses articulatory phonology and the organization of the speech code. The chapter introduces the way the speech code works, specifies the issues regarding its origins, and its diversity in human languages.Less

Triangles in the Brain

Robert C. Berwick and Noam Chomsky

in Why Only Us: Language and Evolution

This chapter examines the what, who, where, when, how, and why of language and its evolution. It first considers Alfred Russel Wallace's views about natural selection before expounding on the “what” ... More

This chapter examines the what, who, where, when, how, and why of language and its evolution. It first considers Alfred Russel Wallace's views about natural selection before expounding on the “what” question, focusing on language's three components: the first is “CPU,” which encompasses the basic compositional operation, Merge; the second and third are interfaces to the sensorimotor and conceptual-intentional systems. The last two components map from the structures Merge assembles to systems of “externalization” and “internalization.” The chapter then explores the computation of hierarchical structure before comparing birdsong and language in other nonhuman animals with the externalization sound system of human languages. It also addresses the question of where and when the Basic Property of language first appeared, how the Basic Property is actually implemented in neural circuitry, and why humans have language at all.Less

Conceptualising Language

Joanna Gavins

in Text World Theory: An Introduction

This chapter begins with a discussion of the theoretical foundations of Text World Theory. Text World Theory is a model of human language processing, which is based on the notions of mental ... More

This chapter begins with a discussion of the theoretical foundations of Text World Theory. Text World Theory is a model of human language processing, which is based on the notions of mental representation found in cognitive psychology and which shares the experientialist principles of cognitive linguistics. The chapter then considers what Text World Theory means in practical terms and what sets it apart from other cognitive-linguistic frameworks. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less

The Enlightenment: From Hobbes to Condillac

in The Scenic Imagination: Originary Thinking from Hobbes to the Present Day

During the Enlightenment, the imagined scene of representation was first used as a means to understand human institutions, particularly language. The origin of language(s) was the subject of numerous ... More

During the Enlightenment, the imagined scene of representation was first used as a means to understand human institutions, particularly language. The origin of language(s) was the subject of numerous eighteenth-century works by writers such as Pierre de Maupertuis, Adam Smith, and Etienne de Condillac, whose 1746 book, Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines (1746), contains the first articulated hypothetical scene of origin for human language. Most of these works were thought experiments that sought to understand how perceptions and sensations could produce signs. Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau address the scenic origin of the social order in Leviathan (1651) and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754), respectively, along with the latter's The Social Contract (1762). These works arguably define the intellectual and roughly, the chronological limits, of the Enlightenment scenic imagination as a basis for political theory. Both writers use the “social contract” to unite in a single social unit persons who are biologically unrelated to each other.Less

What is special about the human language faculty and how did it get that way?

Stephen R. Anderson

in The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Evidence and Inference

This chapter addresses two basic questions. The first is: ‘How was the human language faculty shaped evolutionarily?’ It suggests that this faculty, being a consequence of the biological nature of ... More

This chapter addresses two basic questions. The first is: ‘How was the human language faculty shaped evolutionarily?’ It suggests that this faculty, being a consequence of the biological nature of humans, probably arose through natural selection. The second basic question is: ‘How do we identify the properties that we should attribute to the human language faculty?’ Identifying these properties is more difficult than dealing with the corresponding problem in the study of most other biological traits. It discusses in detail the potential and the limitations of the various means — e.g., poverty-of-the-stimulus arguments — by which these properties could be identified.Less

Why Now?

Robert C. Berwick and Noam Chomsky

in Why Only Us: Language and Evolution

This chapter explains that the book is a collection of essays that address the evolution of language. It examines the tension between Darwinian infinitesimal evolutionary change and continuity, with ... More

This chapter explains that the book is a collection of essays that address the evolution of language. It examines the tension between Darwinian infinitesimal evolutionary change and continuity, with the goal of resolving it. It considers Charles Darwin's view that language is closely associated with thought, what the paleoneurologist Harry Jerison calls an “internal mental tool,” and provides empirical linguistic support for this position. It also explores three key properties of human language syntactic structure, all captured by minimalist system assumptions: human language syntax is hierarchical, and is blind to considerations of linear order, with linear ordering constraints reserved for externalization; the particular hierarchical structures associated with sentences affects their interpretation; and there is no upper bound on the depth of relevant hierarchical structure. The book concludes by assessing the biological basis for vocal learning from an evolutionary perspective. In the remainder of this chapter, contemporary evolutionary theory and theories about the evolution of language are discussed, along with vocal learning and production, as mediated by the sensorimotor interface, and genomics.Less