Upload
shelby
View
77
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Evolution of Language: Neanderthal Speech. One clue to the evolution of speech is the descent of the larynx which allows for the articulatory control of air. Arch of Cranial Base: Indicates descended larynx. Earliest hominins (Australopiths) had cranial base similar to apes - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Citation preview
Evolution of Language:Neanderthal Speech
One clue to the evolution of speech is the descent of the larynx which allows for the articulatory control of air.
Arch of Cranial Base: Indicates descended larynx
• Earliest hominins (Australopiths) had cranial base similar to apes
• Cranial base approximates human angle in Kabwe and Steinheim skulls (around 300,000 ybp)
• Neanderthal cranium actually flatter than some older samples.
Hominin Evolutionary Chronology
• 5-7 mybp: split between chimp and hominin lines• 5-4 mybp: emergence of earliest hominins –
australopiths• 2.5-2 mybp: emergence of genus Homo (first major brain
size expansion• 1.8 mybp: emergence of Homo erectus/ergaster (first
evidence of human-like traits)• .5 mypb: emergence of Homo heidelbergensis (first of
the archaic Homo sapiens; second major expansion in brain size
• 200,000 ybp: emergence of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals
• 35,000 ypb Upper Paleolithic revolution
Animal Language: Vervet Alarm Calls
• Different alarm calls appear to be referential
Ape Language Studies
• Washoe Koko Nim Chimpsky• Fouts/Gardners Francine Patterson Herb Terrace
Kanzi: The talking BonoboSue Savage-Rumbaugh
Lexigram symbol languageSimple syntaxSpontaneous acquisitionReferential/symbolic
understanding90% utterances:
requests/commands
Derek Bickerton: Catastrophic Evolution
Two steps: protolanguage – associated with increasing brain size
Full language – associated with cultural revolution in UP