Essay on Origin of Language

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Origin of Language Ling 100: Language and Communica4on Dr. Anne Rimro9 Spring 2013 1

Outline 1. Language as uniquely human / Explana4ons for language evolu4on 2. Characteris4cs of human speech 3. Limita4ons and unknowns

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1. Language as Uniquely Human

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Discussion “Fully developed language was in place 50,000 years ago, when humans … were crea4ng art and burying their dead, symbolic behaviors that point unequivocally to fluent language.” – Steven Pinker

• Why is evidence of art crea4on considered evidence of humans using language? • What do language and art have in common? • What other behaviours are “uniquely human”?

Language as Uniquely Human • Language makes possible all the characteris4cs that make us different – Social organiza4on, tool making, technological advances, establishment and enforcement of social and moral laws, art, …

• If we follow evolu4onary theory, then language must have evolved at some point, making us different from other primates • But, there is an enormous gap between our closer rela4ves, our chimpazees, and us 5

Language Evolu4on: Basic Explana4ons 1. Language arose as a different system from any other pre-­‐exis4ng communica4on system – Then no suppor4ng evidence available

2. Language evolved from an exis4ng communica4on system

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Evidence for Second Hypothesis • Consistent with other evidence in evolu4onary theory – Evolu4on leads to the adapta4on of old mechanisms to new func4ons

• Human speech is imposed on mechanisms that evolved for different purposes – Lungs: to exchange CO2 and oxygen (in speech: to supply air for speech) – Teeth: to break up food (in speech: provides place of ar4cula4on for consonants) 7

Nineteenth Century Theories • All with cute names (bow-­‐wow, pooh-­‐pooh, yo-­‐ he-­‐ho, la-­‐la theory), but basically varia4ons on some themes – Onomatopoeia – language arose from sounds that imitated what they were represen4ng (e.g., ‘bow-­‐ wow’ for dog) – Sound symbolism – pronuncia4on of word reminds people of an aspect of the referent (e.g., ‘teeny’) – Emo4on – language arose from sounds used to describe emo4onal states – Coopera4on – as a result of the need to work together

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Problems with 19th Century Theories • Arbitrariness – Don’t account for bulk of words in languages, which are arbitrary (don’t bear resemblance to en4ty they denote (e.g., dog, enthusiasm))

• Discon4nuity problem – No traceable progression from a
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