Theory and evidence in language evolution research

PLM2012 Thematic session

Organisers: Przemysław Żywiczyński (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń); Sławomir Wacewicz (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń); Luke McCrohon (University of Tokyo)

Invited speaker: Prof. Jim Hurford (University of Edinburgh)

The problem of the emergence of the uniquely human ability to acquire language was traditionally perceived to be as intriguing as it was elusive, leading to reflections that were interesting but conjectural. Even thirty years ago it was fair for linguists to claim that the phylogeny of language was irrelevant to linguistic research, constituting a proprietary area of mythological, religious or philosophical reflection (e.g. Fisiak 1985). The rapid advances that the research area of language evolution (Evolution of Language or EoL, for short) has seen recently testify to a profound change in that perception. These changes result from many breakthroughs, some in disciplines such as primatology or genetics, some in linguistics itself, reflecting its closer alliances with neighbouring fields. While gesturology, pidginisation and creolisation, computational models, and language acquisition have so far been the main sources of evidence, the EoL studies have recently been complemented e.g. by statistical analyses over bodies of linguistic data (e.g. Atkinson 2011, Dunn et al. 2011).

The evolution of language can be approached from at least two major perspectives:

  • of evolutionary changes leading to the development of the biological potential for language, or
  • of mechanisms of the cultural evolution of the communicative code.

However, such efforts remain grounded in a higher-order theoretical discussion touching upon the foundations of modern linguistic theory, e.g. concerning the status of language universals or the notion of the “faculty of language” (cf. the debate between Chomsky, Hauser, Fitch, and Pinker and Jackendoff).

The aims of the session can be summarised as follows:

  • to assess the present range of available evidence and to discuss the status of the new sources of evidence
  • to assess the role of theoretical syntheses and holistic scenarios of language emergence and evolution
  • to identify the ways in which linguistic methodologies can be made relevant to answering the ‘origins’ type questions,
  • to identify the limitations of linguistic methodologies alone and thus directions of interdisciplinary collaboration
  • to bridge the gap between conceptions of evidence in biology and linguistics

 

Sample bibliography

Burling, R. 2005. The talking ape. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Deacon, T. W. 1997. The Symbolic Species. The Co-evolution of Language and the Human Brain. London: Penguin Press.
Dessalles, J., Grieve, J. 2009. Why We Talk. The Evolutionary Origins of Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dunbar, R. I. M. 1996. Grooming, gossip, and the evolution of language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Fitch, T. 2010. The Evolution of Language. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Fitch, T., Hauser, M. & Chomsky, N. 2005. The evolution of the language faculty: clarifications and implications. Cognition. 97(2), 179-210.
Givón,T., Malle, B. 2002. Evolution of Language out of Pre-language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Hauser, M., Chomsky, N. & Fitch T. 2002. The Faculty of Language: What. Is It, Who Has It, and How Did It Evolve? Science 298, 1569-1579.
Hewes, G. W. 1996. “A history of the study of language origins and the gestural primacy hypothesis”. W: A. Lock, Ch. Peters (ed.), Handbook of human symbolic evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hurford, J. 2007. The origins of meaning: Language in the light of evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jackendoff, R. 1999. Possible stages in the evolution of the language capacity. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3(7), 272-279.
Jackendoff, R. & Pinker, S. 2005. The nature of the language faculty and its implications for evolution of language. Cognition 97(2), 211-225.
Johansson, S. 2005. Origins of Language: Constraints on hypotheses. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Kendon, A. 2004. Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MacNeilage, P. 2010. The Origin of Speech. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pinker, S. & Bloom, P. (1990). Natural language and natural selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13, 707-784.
Pinker, S. & Jackendoff, R. 2005. The Faculty of language: What’s special about it? Cognition 95(2), 201-236.
Smith, A. D. M., Smith, K. & Ferrer i Cancho, R. (Eds.) 2008. Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (EVOLANG 7). New Jersey: World Scientific.
Smith, A. D. M., Shouwstra, M., de Boer, B. & Smith, K. (Eds.) 2010. Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (EVOLANG 8). New Jersey: World Scientific.