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What Drove the Evolution of Language?
- Thread starter Sunstone
- Start date
Probably the fact that a group of people wanted to call something like "a rock with sharpened edges" a knife. Imagine a person growling "pass me the rock with sharpened edges!" for nobody to understand, instead of screaming "Kniiiife!" when he is in a life-or-death fight with a lion. Survival of the fittest. In that situation, the better the language skills the better the chances of surviving to spread "speaking" genes.
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methylatedghosts
Can't brain. Has dumb.
I read today "Language is thought's handmaiden".
In a single (if lengthy) sentence; I think language evolved or emerged out of a need to communicate our knowledge, emotions, and experiences to our friends so that they could use the communicated ideas in context of their own experience, and thus add to to their experience as a whole.
In a single (if lengthy) sentence; I think language evolved or emerged out of a need to communicate our knowledge, emotions, and experiences to our friends so that they could use the communicated ideas in context of their own experience, and thus add to to their experience as a whole.
The Neo Nerd
Well-Known Member
My best guess is that languages evolve away from others due to the fact that individual groups will create their own lingos to differentiate themselves from others.
The internet is an excellent real time example of this. The english spoken on the internet by those who inhabit it is different from the english spoken by the society around them.
Eg.
LOL has evolved from an acronym to a verb.
Google can now be considered a verb as well as a noun.
Different memes generate different language.
If you look at the english language you can see how it has changed with each country it inhabits.
Languages also change when they come in contact with other languages, think of spanglish and creole.
American english is different to australian english which is different to english english.
-Q
The internet is an excellent real time example of this. The english spoken on the internet by those who inhabit it is different from the english spoken by the society around them.
Eg.
LOL has evolved from an acronym to a verb.
Google can now be considered a verb as well as a noun.
Different memes generate different language.
If you look at the english language you can see how it has changed with each country it inhabits.
Languages also change when they come in contact with other languages, think of spanglish and creole.
American english is different to australian english which is different to english english.
-Q
apophenia
Well-Known Member
Do you mean how did language originally emerge (i.e. pre-human), or what contributes to the evolution of human language ?
If the former, I suspect that it had something to do with being able to identify what conditions equalled the probable availability of nutrients.
By that I mean - first there was the amoeba, which had no control over anything much. An amoeba is passive and not able to move, and can only absorb whatever nutrient presents at the cell wall.
Then came the flagellates, which could use their tail to move toward nutrient or away from toxins.
So I'm guessing that language originally was some kind of memory of correspondences - this condition means nutrient, that means toxicity. And as multicell organisms evolved so did those systems. So the beginning of language was a kind of intracellular navigation system originally.
But I'm no biologist, so that's just a wild stab in the dark.
Terrywoodenpic
Oldest Heretic
Does language need to develop before new concepts can be conceived?
Or is language simply used as a shorthand for new ideas?
Or is language simply used as a shorthand for new ideas?
apophenia
Well-Known Member
If you mean the latter, the answer is probably much the same ! Someone once said ' "I" is the stomach talking'
Higher animals talk (or squawk or buzz) to communicate about nutrients and sex.
I remember sitting on a hill in the country listening to all the birds I could hear in the surrounding area. The thought occurred to me that the overall birdsong was also an analysis of what was growing in the area, what insects etc were thriving, because each kind of bird there was there feeding on specific plants and/or insects.
So the total birdsong was a description of the local ecosystem. And I was singing and enjoying my cookie on the hill too ...
Higher animals talk (or squawk or buzz) to communicate about nutrients and sex.
I remember sitting on a hill in the country listening to all the birds I could hear in the surrounding area. The thought occurred to me that the overall birdsong was also an analysis of what was growing in the area, what insects etc were thriving, because each kind of bird there was there feeding on specific plants and/or insects.
So the total birdsong was a description of the local ecosystem. And I was singing and enjoying my cookie on the hill too ...
I would say the same things that drive evolution. Time mixtuare of different langauges and dialects adaptaion via dialect regional isolation.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Increased cooperation meant increased survival.
Numbers. Language was around before evolution. As the good Book says, at first was the 'Word'.
outhouse
Atheistically
outhouse
Atheistically
Language skills increased as brainsize increased.
Most mammals have some sort of communication as a survival instinct.
Short answer: no one knows. Linguists (not "translators", but scientists of language) have been trying to figure this one out for decades: why do humans speak? how did language arise? when did language arise? (best guess is about 150,000 - 200,000 years ago based on the rate of word and language change over time). We may never know unless we see it develop in non-human animals. And even then, we may not recognize it as language.
shawn001
Well-Known Member
"Language was around before evolution"
What language was "at first was the 'Word' in ?
Were still evolving and no it wasn't language evolved.
LANGUAGE AND CONSCIOUSNESS Part III: THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE with STEVEN PINKER, Ph.D.
LANGUAGE AND CONSCIOUSNESSPart III: THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGEwith STEVEN PINKER, Ph.D.
Copernicus
Industrial Strength Linguist
First of all, other species communicate through systematic behavior that could be classified as "language". Other animals that we are more closely related to have oral means of communication. For example, birds have fairly complex "songs"--forms of learned communication, because birdsong can come in "dialects" that are not actually inherited, just as human language can. However, there is no evidence that birdsongs actually communicate in the way that human languages do.
Then you have so-called "call systems" that are much more limited in scope. Other primates have complex call systems, just as humans do. Laughing, crying, chuckling, screaming, etc., are forms of oral communication that fall into this category. What we normally think of as "language" is something else. Human language is primarily spoken (with written systems being based on spoken systems), although communities of the deaf have evolved sophisticated gestural forms of language.
All human languages tend to conform to some extremely complex limitations on how thoughts are expressed. All languages have roughly the same set of grammatical functions--nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and their associated "phrases". All languages have clauses (relative and subordinate), subjects, direct objects, and phrasal structures that fall in the same category as English prepositional and adverbial phrases. Since roughly 1960, linguists have recognized additional types of universals, including such curious facts as that verb-last languages like Hindi and Japanese share similar phrasal structure. For example, Hindi and Japanese have verb-last sentence structure and postpositions (as opposed to prepositions), even though Hindi is historically more closely related to English than Japanese. English has prepositions, which are more typical of verb-initial languages.
Now, how did language evolve? Nowadays, a lot of linguists have come to believe that it evolved in connection with gestural communication. That is, primates all make gestures when communicating with each other, and it is easy to see how gestures can be connected to spoken communication (e.g. primate "calls"). It may well be that the speech tract evolved to facilitate those associations. What would be the "survival" advantage of that? Well, try communicating through gestures in the dark, and you'll figure it out. Spoken languages have immense advantages over purely gestural languages, and primate species that were better at spoken communication probably used that advantage in competition with other species that lacked the evolutionary advantage.
Then you have so-called "call systems" that are much more limited in scope. Other primates have complex call systems, just as humans do. Laughing, crying, chuckling, screaming, etc., are forms of oral communication that fall into this category. What we normally think of as "language" is something else. Human language is primarily spoken (with written systems being based on spoken systems), although communities of the deaf have evolved sophisticated gestural forms of language.
All human languages tend to conform to some extremely complex limitations on how thoughts are expressed. All languages have roughly the same set of grammatical functions--nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and their associated "phrases". All languages have clauses (relative and subordinate), subjects, direct objects, and phrasal structures that fall in the same category as English prepositional and adverbial phrases. Since roughly 1960, linguists have recognized additional types of universals, including such curious facts as that verb-last languages like Hindi and Japanese share similar phrasal structure. For example, Hindi and Japanese have verb-last sentence structure and postpositions (as opposed to prepositions), even though Hindi is historically more closely related to English than Japanese. English has prepositions, which are more typical of verb-initial languages.
Now, how did language evolve? Nowadays, a lot of linguists have come to believe that it evolved in connection with gestural communication. That is, primates all make gestures when communicating with each other, and it is easy to see how gestures can be connected to spoken communication (e.g. primate "calls"). It may well be that the speech tract evolved to facilitate those associations. What would be the "survival" advantage of that? Well, try communicating through gestures in the dark, and you'll figure it out.
Spoken languages have immense advantages over purely gestural languages, and primate species that were better at spoken communication probably used that advantage in competition with other species that lacked the evolutionary advantage.
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apophenia
Well-Known Member
True.
Researchers in Australia established that magpies use language. They recorded various calls under different conditions. One test they did involved playing recordings of birds when a threat/intruder was present. When those recordings were played back in the field, the birds responded exactly as if a threat was present
I can't remember all the details unfortunately, so I can't provide references.
The interesting point was that up until then it was considered that the birds could not have language as their brains do not have a frontal lobe, which was considered to be essential to language. Magpies have a pea-sized brain and no frontal lobe. Back to the drawing board ...
I'm not sure I agree. I know this is a "given" in generative linguistics and those which grew out of that tradition, but I would say it has come under increasing scrutiny by typologists on the one hand and cognitive linguists on the other. There are typological analyses of languages which claim that they lack even the noun/verb distinction. Construction grammarians don't deny the existence of grammatical classes (with the exception, to some extent, of Bill Croft), but they exist only as cognitive prototypes.
What about ergative languages or active/stative languages? Aren't there linguists who argue that there are languages which lack transitivity as a feature (languages which Dixon refers to as split-ergative, but which Klimov and others refer to as Active)?
Of course, I would think that whether or not one accepts the "massive-modularity" view and the existence of a "language-faculty" would factor into how language evolved as it would necessitate the evolution of a domain-specific module devoted to grammar/language.
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shawn001
Well-Known Member
Lots of animnals have types of languages.
apes communicate
Dolphns
Whales
Birds
and lots of other animals and while not "language" like ours we know some of the language anianls use is complex. We can't totally figure out whale and dolphin language.
Alex and african grey parrot
Researchers explore whether parrot has concept of zero
A bird may have hit on a concept that eluded mathematicians for centuriespossibly during a temper tantrum.
Researchers explore whether parrot has concept of zero
Alex (parrot)
Alex had a vocabulary of about 150 words,[13] but was exceptional in that he appeared to have understanding of what he said. For example, when Alex was shown an object and was asked about its shape, color, or material, he could label it correctly.[11] He could understand that a key was a key no matter what its size or color, and could figure out how the key was different from others.[4] He asked what color he was, and learned "grey" after being told the answer six times.[14]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot)
apes communicate
Dolphns
Whales
Birds
and lots of other animals and while not "language" like ours we know some of the language anianls use is complex. We can't totally figure out whale and dolphin language.
Alex and african grey parrot
Researchers explore whether parrot has concept of zero
A bird may have hit on a concept that eluded mathematicians for centuriespossibly during a temper tantrum.
Researchers explore whether parrot has concept of zero
Alex (parrot)
Alex had a vocabulary of about 150 words,[13] but was exceptional in that he appeared to have understanding of what he said. For example, when Alex was shown an object and was asked about its shape, color, or material, he could label it correctly.[11] He could understand that a key was a key no matter what its size or color, and could figure out how the key was different from others.[4] He asked what color he was, and learned "grey" after being told the answer six times.[14]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot)
Different languages seem to have evolved through geographical isolation, no?