The Origins of Language

Primate CommunicationVocal + NonvocalExpresses immediate mental/emotional stateSpecies-wideInnateExamples:– Yikes–a snake!– Give me some of that– I am dangerous!– I see food!

Human Spoken LanguageDistinguishing Traits

Detachable from immediate state of speakerDisplacement of time and spaceInfinite productivityHigh information densityCulturalArbitrary

The Evolution of Human Language and Cognition: Two Models

Early/gradual– Circumstantial arguments – Brain casts

Recent/sudden– Upper Paleolithic revolution– Vocal tract

Must it be one of these?

Multilayered Human Communication

We cannot find partially linguistic species today . . .

. . . but we can “peel away” the layers of our own system.

We contain multitudes!

Two Experimental Scenarios:A. PRELANGUAGE

You cannot use words.

B. PROTOLANGUAGE You have all your present abilities, except that your vocabulary is roughly that of an 18 month old human child (a few dozen nouns & names, a dozen or so verbs, no tense, no articles or prepositions, no pronouns but “me”)

Communicate to Thag:1. You want Thag to share food

with you 2. You want Thag to leave, or else

you may attack him3. How your companion Thug got

covered with mammoth poop4. Why Thag shouldn’t eat that

plant5. You want Thag to go find rocks

and make tools to cut up the wildebeeste you have just found

6. Lord Vader finds Thag’s lack of faith “disturbing”

PRELANGUAGE

CALLSGESTURES

The Human Call System

Similar to other primates and mammalsLargely cross-cultural– Eek! Grrrr...!

Interlaces with language– Tone of voice– Volume– Pitch– May supplement, even contradict, spoken message

Increased importance when speech is limited

The Human Gestural SystemGesture vastly enriches calls or simple speechLinked to speech centersRecent studies of blind gesturersShared with related speciesLargely innate & species-wide– Cultural vs. universal gestures– Anger– Begging – Flirtation?

Language Evolution Revisited:

How could language have evolved?

Language Development:An Alternative Model

Primates:Calls &gestures

Australopithecus:Enhanced calls

& gestures

Homo erectus: Protolanguage

& gestures

Homo sapiens:Syntactic language

3 mya 2 mya 1 mya Present

Primates:Calls &gestures

Australopithecus:Enhanced calls

& gestures

3 mya 2 mya

Argument for AustralopithecuslanguageSlightly larger brainReorganized? (casts)Circumstances: ecology, society

Against:Apelike vocal tract No tools

Enhanced call system?(Not cultural)(No displacement, etc.)

Phase 2:Protolanguage

Homo erectus: Protolanguage

& gestures

2 mya 1 mya

(Dereck Bickerton, Language and Species)

“Robust” and universal– 18-month children– Language-trained apes– Language-deprived (“Genie”)– Pidgin speakers

Short, unstructurecd utterances (“word salad”)– “Applesauce buy store”– “Banana give banana me give”

Cultural: learned wordsLexical (vs. grammatical) words– Concrete nouns, verbs, adjectives

(bear, hand, rock, Thag, hit, give, big)– No tense, conjuntions, prepositions,

pronouns etc.– No syntactical elements

What is syntax?Logical organization of elements in an utteranceDevices: Word order, connectors, inflectionsNesting levels of relationship– “Lord Vader finds Thag’s lack of faith “disturbing.”– “I have been deeply troubled by your lack of regard for my

Christian moral principles.”

How much of this could be said in protolanguage?Clusters of meaning, normally nested without ambiguityBreakdown of syntax draws our attention to how it works. Can you fix these?– “The King of England’s hat”– “Today we will be discussing sex with a leading child

psychologist.”

Protolanguage enhanced by gesture and nonverbal sounds

Homo erectus

2 mya 1 mya

Protolanguage utterances=“word salad”How to get “syntax” into protolanguage?– 1. Context– 2. Gesture

Gesture:– Stokoe, The Gestural Origins of Language– Gestures have incipient syntax– Stories (mimesis)

H. erectus: protolanguage + gesture and nonverbal sounds

Compatible with erectus brain & vocal tractExplains continuing evolution

of brain and vocal tract

Homo sapiens:Syntactic language

Present800 kya

The Modern TransformationSyntactic items– Do not refer to things or actions– Create logical relationships among

lexical items– Example: “I am deeply troubled by

your lack of regard for my Christian moral principles.”

Modern cognition– Complex mental maps created by

semantic categories and syntactic connections

Modern articulation– “Dance” of mouth, tongue, larynx,

breath

A “Package” (?)

Which came first?Syntax, mental mapping, or articulation?Language is a holistic system of representation which entails all threeCan’t have mental representation of something until it can be put into syntaxSpeech/hearing is the doorway between the individual mind and the cultural “storehouse”Mind and Culture

The Human Vocal TractDoorway of the mind

Specialized for speaking

Modern human Neandertal

Vowel formation and SupralaryngealVocal Tract (SLVT)

Vital phonemes /i/ and /a/Modern proportions are crucialCould Neanderthal talk? Skhul?

Dance of the Consonants

Tongue and teeth for stopsCoordination of breath and tongue in voicingUnvoiced and voiced (/p/ versus /b/ or /t/ versus /d/)20 millisecond difference

Requires specialized neuroanatomical equipment

PhonemesHumans capable of about 50 vocal soundsTypical language maps out 25-30 “phonemes”Phonemic distinctions must be learned during childhood– English speakers cannot differentiate aspirated and

unaspirated /p/ of pots and spots– Chinese speakers cannot distinguish /r/ and /l/

Phonemes grade into one another for speed– Say “Tea for two” while touching your lips

Speech conquers a biological barrier

Mammal hearing cannot track a tapping sound at more than 7 taps per secondHowever, we can distinguish about 20 meaningful units of spoken information per second:“Australopithecus” has 14 phonemes, plus pitch contours and

accentuations

Neurological and anatomical adaptation for speechUnique to fully modern sapiens (?)

Spoken language as a “natural” legacyOccurs at a predictable ageDoes not depend on deliberate teaching– Requires only exposure

We unfailingly follow grammatical rules that we cannot describeAll human languages are equally complexIsolated languages have recurrent grammatical featuresNew “Pidgin” and “Creole” languages evolve similarly everywhere

Reviewing Language DevelopmentHow language advantaged erectus and modern sapiens

Primates:Calls &gestures

Australopithecus:Enhanced calls

& gestures

Homo erectus: Protolanguage

& gestures

Homo sapiens:Syntactic language

3 mya 2 mya 1 mya Present

Hominid IntelligenceSocial IntelligenceThe role of sensory processingFour kinds of learning– Experiential [Animals?]– Observational [Mammals?]– Constructional: [Homo?]– Cultural: [Homo?]

Cognitive mapping with syntactic spoken language– An unexplored territory of mind– Effects are cumulative

The Creative Explosion

“Symbolic Tools”Personal AdornmentMusicGrave offeringsRitual and religion

Upper Paleolithic societyLinguistic complexity probably equal to today’sReligion, music and artRegional trade and intergroup relationsGlobal cultures diverse but comparably complexA world constructed by language and mind– “We live suspended in webs of meanings that we ourselves

have constructed”– Yet, fully adaptive to material conditions

The best glimpse of this world comes from modern hunter-gatherers

Next . . .

Hunter-Gatherers:The Original Affluent Society?