Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of language and literature
Wolfgang Wildgen
The Semiotic Hypercycle and the
Run-Away Process of Linguistic
(Symbolic) Evolution
Contribution to the Cradle of Language
Conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa,
7 – 10 Nov 2006
http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/homepages/homepagebyid.asp?id=34
Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
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INTRODUCTION
THE HYPERCYCLE
THE DYNAMICS INHERENT IN THE SIGN
(Based on Peirce)
4 BASIC FUNCTIONS OF SIGNS (Based on
Bühler)
5 SOME LEVELS OF THE EMERGENCE OF
GRAMMAR
6 CONCLUSIONS
Further aspects (Cassirer)
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
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Introduction
Two major periods of rapid emergence are plausible:
1. The first is linked to the emergence of lithic technology
(Homo habilis) and to the protospecies which was later
distributed in Africa, Asia and Europe: Homo erectus (and
its African variant Homo ergaster). One can postulate that
the core of this evolution took place around 2 my BP. (2.4
to 1.6 my).
2. The second concerns the archaic Homo sapiens prior to
the second Out-of-Africa migration. We may fix the core of
its evolution to the period 300 ky BP (400 to 200 ky).
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Four major points of access
1. The hypercycle proposed by Eigen and Schuster for the
emergence of life. This will be extrapolated to the
evolution of language.
2. The semiotic cascade introduced by Peirce as a cosmic
universal. It has to be restricted for our purpose.
3. Bühler’s model of the basic functions of signs and
language. It must be critically reassessed.
4. The plurality of (parallel) symbolic forms postulated by
Ernst Cassirer in his “philosophy of symbolic forms”.
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Three steps in the last 7 my.
Communicative /
cognitive
capabilities of
the LCA
Actual human
Protolanguage /
linguistic and


cognitive
Protocognition
capacities
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
• At the first level one may assume a capacity for
communication found in many mammals and even birds. If
we assume that modern primates like chimpanzees have
not dramatically increased their capacities for cognition and
language in the last 6 my, the level of LCA may be
elucidated by a comparison between humans and primates
(cf. Tomasello, 1999).
• The second level, that of Homo erectus, is really a large
plateau, because this species existed for almost 2 my (up
to the Homo floriensis 15,000 years ago). In this long
period many variants developed. The Homo
neanderthaliensis, a late branch of the Homo erectus
population which reached Europe half a million years ago,
became a rival of Homo sapiens.
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
• In the Near East they occupied similar ecologies around 100,000 y BP,
but only in the late migration of Homo sapiens to Europe (after
40,000 y BP) did the two species really clash before the Homo
neanderthaliensis disappeared 15.000 y. later). Major genetically
coded differences in semiotic and linguistic capacity must have
emerged in this period and due to heavy ecological changes (mainly
the ice-ages with cycles of migration from northern to southern areas,
of dry and humid periods, changes in the fauna and flora) a series of
bottle-neck scenarios could select even for minor differences in social
organization and cognitive semiotic advantages.
• The third level must have been reached with the speciation of Homo
sapiens and its migration first to Southern Asia (reaching Australia) and
then to Europe. The potential of this new species is documented in the
use of ochre and ornaments/art in South Africa (ca. 70,000 BP) and in
the Franco-Cantabric cultures (after 35,000 BP), which laid the ground
for the Neolithic revolution and the first civilization in Egypt and
Mesopotamia.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
• Although Darwin’s assumption that human language arose
from animal expressive and communicative behavior
(Darwin, 1872) remains relevant in the context of modern
evolutionary biology, one must still find a way to explain the
rapidity and extent of the evolutionary change.
• Darwin proposed sexual selection as a natural analogy of
breeding. In fact sexual selection can trigger a runaway
process (cf. Wildgen, 2004: 17-20). However, the
characters evolved by sexual selection are mostly different
between the sexes and appear at sexual maturity.
• Language and linguistic thought ask for another, deeper
runaway process. This does not eliminate sexual selection
for specific phonic features but the pragmatic, semantic
and syntactic power of human languages needs another
type of explanation.
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Theory of language and semiotics
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The Hypercycle
• “Non-coupled self-replicative units guarantee the conservation of
a limited amount of information which can be passed on from
generation to generation. This proves to be one of the necessary
prerequisites of Darwinian behavior, i.e. of selection and
evolution.
• In a similar way, catalytic hypercycles are also selective, but, in
addition, they have integrating properties, which allow for
cooperation between otherwise competitive units. Yet, they
compete even more violently than Darwinian species with any
replicative entity not being part of their own. Furthermore, they
have the ability of establishing global forms of organization as a
consequence of their once-for-ever-selection behavior, which
does not permit a coexistence with other hypercyclic systems,
unless these are stabilized by higher-order linkages.” (Eigen and
Schuster, 1979: 6)
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Energy rich
building
materials
Autocatalytic cycle
A
D
Catalytic
hypercycle
B
C
Wolfgang Wildgen
Illustration of the
hypercycle “the
inter-mediates Ii are
able to instruct their
own reproduction
and, in addition,
provide cata-lytic
support for the
reproduction of the
subsequent intermediate (using the
energy -rich
building materials
X)” (ibidem: 5).
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Theory of language and semiotics
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• The most dramatic difference between physiological
microevolution and symbolic (linguistic) macroevolution
concerns the fact that the first one stores and activates the
phylogenetic memory of a species, whereas the latter
stores the historical/cultural and the individual/biographical
memory.
• The interesting features of catalytic and hypercyclic
organization is that they enable faithful replication and
dramatic selection by their hyperbolic growth. This means
that all types of organization which are not part of an
operative hypercycle (i.e., all competitors at a lower level)
are repressed.
• I will try to fill this abstract type of model with some details
from human evolution. I choose two routes of application,
one cognitive (neural) and one social (cultural).
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
The cognitive hypercycle
1.
2.
3.
The simplest level is that of reflexes which link perceptual input
and motor output. As the reflex mechanism itself is neither
perceptual nor motoric but a neutral medium of linkage, it may
be called a catalyst. Stimulus response models of language
exploit this first level of catalysis (and stick to it).
If (an independent) memory exists, a top-down control may
modify the “reflex”. Memory is, therefore, a higher control, an
autocatalyst which has its own internal cycle of categorization,
of distributed storage and retrieval modes.
Consciousness or specific fore-brain centered monitoring
processes are able to compare and evaluate different second
order (memory-induced) information and, therefore, they act like
a hypercycle based on memory dependent autocatalytic
processes.
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
The social/cultural hypercycle
1.
2.
Already in the LCA contextual space acts as an external memory
of affordances, which is indexically given by paths (of social
locomotion and predator/prey-locomotion), harvesting locations
(and times), dangerous locations, places for sleep, courtship,
housing, frontiers of territories, etc. These indexically loaded
areas and places function like a catalyst of social action, insofar
as they can coordinate social perception and action.
As soon as space is more specifically organized in relation to
cognition and social use, it unfolds in a cycle of social
“investment”. Architecture and the spatial organization of a village
(or later a town) are clear examples. This level is autocatalytic
insofar as the spatial organization becomes itself a cyclic
structure in which different functions cooperate.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
housing
fire place
myth. space
public space
ritual
tool making
outside
chase, harvest
Semiotically invested subspaces (left) and possible symbolic functions (right)
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
3. In the further development different (regional)
forms of symbolic modes (e.g., language and
religion) clash. This was the case in the large
Neolithic societies of Egypt and Mesopotamia,
where a new level of symbolic consciousness
was reached.
4. The single fields in the next figure are reorganized in a hypercycle, which produced new,
institutionalized symbolic systems, such as a
codified religion and a written language.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
myth1
myth 2
Product of the
interaction:
Religious code
language1
myth 4
language 2
myth3
Product of the
interaction:
Written
language
language 4
language 3
The hypercycle of centralized, codified symbolic forms
(myth and language).
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
The generalized notion of sign (Peirce)
• Peirce gave a new interpretation to the semiotic triad
discussed since antiquity. The three terms are called: sign
(the body of the sign) — object (the external state/process
the sign refers to) and interpretant (the system which
lawfully links sign and object).
• The interpretant may be a living sign user (e.g., an
interpreter), but it can be any support for a lawful connexion
between sign and referent. As such it may reenter the
semiotic triad lead to a cascade of sign-triads.
• Peirce abstracts the sign-notion from human (and animal)
communication and subsumes any lawful relation between
two entities as a sign. This leads to universal semiosis.
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
The cascade of semiosis (Peirce)
Interpretant 3 becomes referent 4
Sign 4
Interpretant 2 becomes referent 3
Sign 3
Interpretant 1 becomes referent 2
Sign 2
Sign 1
Lawful relation
between sign and
object
Object (referent) 1
Wolfgang Wildgen
Partial view of
(infinite) semiosis
in Peirce’s
proposal based on
the object.
As a consequence
objects (i.e. the
world) becomes
semiotically
loaded.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
The relevance of the Peirce-hierarchy for
the evolution of language
• In the transition to life (the central topic of Eigen and
Schuster, 1979), a new type of selectivity and thus of
information emerges.
• One could say that the genetic code as a sign structure
refers to an evolutionary history, which itself refers to a
sequence of lawful relations between species and their
ecology. Therefore, one must distinguish at least two levels
of semiosis (beyond the pre-life semiosis in physics and
chemistry),
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
First level: The genetic code as memory of selections
Selection at level 3
O2
Selection at level 2
Selection at level 1
Resultant level n = genetic code
O1
The series
of species
R0 (species)
The series of
ecologies
O0 ( ecology)
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20
Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Information levels in biological systems
•The genetic code is stable under reproduction, but in order to
guarantee this stability, it has to be insensitive to minor
irregularities, individual variation, learning. Its information capacity
increases but reaches a maximal level with sexual reproduction:
Jantsch (1982: 255 ff.) calculates: 5109 digits
•The further augmentation of information can only be achieved
based on the self-organization of the brain (and learning, i.e., nongenetic differentiation) and by social evolution. In learning and in
the cultural selection/conservation of its outcome, we enter a new
cycle where individuals (societies) interact with their ecology.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
The cascade of learning and social knowledge
higher levels of learning
Result = social knowledge
I2 secondary learning (based on
learned behavior)
I1 learned correlation
between R0 and O0
O2
O1 imitated
relevance
Accumulated
learning
R0 (individual
reaction)
Socially
perceived
ecology
O0 (apprehended
ecology)
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Basic differences between the two levels of semiosis
• The two levels have different selection criteria.
• The symbolic forms (e.g. language) are not speciesuniversal, i.e., every separated community develops largely
different symbolic systems, e.g., languages.
• Therefore, the grammars of languages cannot be
compared to the genetic code.
• As the story of symbolic forms is still a rather short one
compared to that of the genetic code, one could imagine
selective pressures on symbolic codes which would
eliminate almost all variants and thus produce a symbolic
code which is as stable and reproducible (without errors)
as it is the case for the genetic code. Another scenario
could be the successive reduction of symbolic forms along
the sequences of its evolution (regression) .
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Theory of language and semiotics
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Bühler‘s triad of sign-functions and the emergence of
language
Meta-representation (poetic function)
representation
Human language
Semiotic sign
Animal communication
Non-semiotic sign
expression
appeal
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
The Bühler-schema as an evolutionary hierarchy
• The basic distinction is that between “social communication”
(social calls, grooming,...) as a cover-term for both expression
and appeal and functional referentiality (which first appears in
referential alarm-calls).
• If representation is in its first stages already present in socially
organized primates, the transition to humans concerns mainly:
– the enrichment of representation, i.e., the lexicon and via
self-organization the syntax;
– the emergence of meta-representation.
• The most prominent case of meta-representation concerns
propositional attitudes and explicit performatives.
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Functional hierarchy at three levels
Metalingual,
poetic function
Representation
1. The inner circle is
reached by all animals
with a social
organization and
specific reactions to
their environment,
Ecological categories
Social categories
Expression/appeal
Phatic function
Wolfgang Wildgen
2. the middle circle
concerns animal
communication with a
minimal reference to
the context and
3. the outer circle
encompasses humans
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Selective value of representation
• In a Darwinian framework only the fertility of the species (not its
cleverness) counts.
• As representation is a type of information-sharing, one must ask:
Under what circumstances did (reciprocal) sharing of information
pay?
• Strong reciprocity is only produced by between-group selectivity in
contexts where groups with many strong reciprocators are better able
to survive.
• The rapidly changing warm and cold periods where such contexts
Eastern and Northern Africa (Sahara) and in Europe
• A population which is often in danger of extinction and must therefore
reorganize (including strangers) will produce a relevant amount of
strong reciprocators.
• As in normal time egoistic behavior is favored, the species will in the
long run assemble a stable amount of reciprocators and egoists, i.e.,
the population is ethically bivalent. Cf. Fehr and Henrich (2003)
Wolfgang Wildgen
27
Theory of language and semiotics
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Some levels of the emergence of grammar
1. Basic level: This most basic cognitive level contains the
capacity of efficient locomotion, for causal impact on the
environment and action. If consciousness is added one
obtains a set of dynamic scenarios which control
intentional behavior and the understanding of causality.
2. Emergence of performing vocal articulation and auditive
perception: At this stage highly performant perceptual and
motor faculties for vocal communication evolve. With the
prominence of vocal communication for social comfort and
control this capacity was further elaborated. The basic
principles of phonology may have emerged in this period.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
3. A protolanguage based on a compositionally enriched lexicon:
The underlying capacity characteristic of this stage of
development is a very systematic exploitation of the
affordances of the ambient and changing ecology. This capacity
was amplified by continuously profiting from the growth of
associative areas in the cortex. It probably evolved
continuously in a long period between the migration of Homo
erectus and the reign of late Cro-Magnon man.
4. The evolution of syntactically and textually complex languages:
This step emerges with the mastering of stable valence
patterns and the use of verbal art (narratives, rhetoric, song,
myth). Probably this level emerged with archaic Homo sapiens
and was fully evolved and functionally exploited in Cro-Magnon
populations, which created the first large cultural networks.
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Theory of language and semiotics
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Linguistic universals and evolutionary levels
Linguistic universals should respect the evolutionary
stratification of the linguistic capacity of humans. It should
therefore consider the levels of:
1. action/motion perception and planning (dynamic
archetypes);
2. phonetic/phonological principles and routines, such as basic
feature distinctions, syllable structures, rhythmic and
euphonic constraints (i.e., phonetic universals and principles
of phonological self-organization);
3. universals of lexical fields, polysemy, metaphor, and
compositionality principles for word like gestalts;
4. syntactic and textual principles for the organization of larger
linguistic gestalts.
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Theory of language and semiotics
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Summary
The 18th century witnessed the rapid invention of „stories“
about the origin of language (Condillac, Rousseau,
Maupertuis, Diderot, Herder). Using new details one could
just continue writing better “stories”.
In my paper I started from three abstract models in order to
develop a frame in which the evolution of language could be
explained.
1. I used the concept of hypercycle (Eigen and Schuster)
introduced for the modeling of the origin of life and the
creation of the genetic code,
2. I applied the schema of (infinite) semiosis (Peirce) in order
to explain the increase of information
3. I specified the functional triangle of Bühler in order to
explain the emergence of higher levels of representation.
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
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One central concern was the equal consideration of
cognitive/ neural and social/cultural parameters in the
evolution of human language. Both lines, cognitive
and cultural evolution, have been followed by the two
“innovative” species which left Africa:
– Homo erectus (1,6 my BP)
– Homo sapiens (100 ky BP)
The precise nature of the semiotic hypercycle has still to
be elaborated, in order to reach the theoretical and
empirical level of Eigen und Schuster’s proposals.
Wolfgang Wildgen
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Some references
• Bax, Marcel, Barend van Heusden and Wolfgang Wildgen (eds.), 2004.
Semiotic Evolution and the Dynamics of Culture, Lang, Bern.
• Cassirer, Ernst, 1953/1957. The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, vol. 1
to 3, Yale U.P., New Haven.
• Eigen, Manfred and Peter Schuster, 1979. The Hypercycle. A Principle
of Natural Self-Organization, Springer, Berlin.
• Fehr, Ernst and Joseph Henrich, 2003. Is Strong Reciprocity a
Maladaptation? On the Evolutionary Foundation of Human Altruism,
CESIFO Working Papers No. 859.
• Jantsch, Erich, 1980. The self-organizing universe: scientific and
human implications of the emergent paradigm of evolution, Pergamon
Press, Oxford.
• Peirce, Charles Sanders, 1956. Collected Papers of Charles Sanders
Peirce, vol. 1-8, Harvard U.P., Cambridge U.P.
• Wildgen, Wolfgang, 2004. The Evolution of Human Languages.
Scenarios, Principles, and Cultural Dynamics, Benjamins, Amsterdam.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Further aspects (added material)
Wolfgang Wildgen
34
Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
The pluralism of symbolic forms and the
evolution of language
1. Myth gives rather a fluid/continuous view of the world.
Mythical symbols lack a clear separation of name and
referent, insofar as the name is/calls for the entity. In a
magical context the naming of the spirit makes him
appear. Therefore the naming of God may offense Him
and becomes a taboo. The arbitrariness of human
symbols (which after de Saussure characterizes
language) is ignored or rejected.
2. Language is organized into discrete units and shows a
clear distinction between ‘signifiant’ and ‘signifié’
(F. de Saussure). It is organized in a quasi-logical grid of
oppositions (Hjelmslev calls it the sublogical structure of
language).
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Theory of language and semiotics
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3. Science, mainly in its mathematical form approaches
“pure meaning” (reine Bedeutung). The mathematical
description is neither contextually dependent / ambiguous
nor is it based on bodily experience.
4. Secondary symbolic forms like technology, art and law
are either located at intermediate levels (art between
myth and language), technology (between myth and
science) or are combinations of different symbolic forms
(poetry, opera, film)
The basic character of language is most visible in the highly
coherent and very rich structure of grammars. Therefore,
the key to any evolutionary theory of language lies in the
explanation of grammar (phonology, lexicon, syntax,
discourse) and its semantic and, pragmatic aspects.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
• A word of caution may be necessary at this point. The fact that
today or in some historical period language, music, dance,
religion, law were strongly interwoven does not mean that this
was the case at the origin. Contrary to religion, art, law, the
capacity of language is much deeper rooted in human nature, as
it shows up even under very poor conditions (it is only absent in
rare cases like “wolf-children”, or in the case of genetic or neural
deficiency). This almost universal stability of language points to
some kind of evolutionary priority. Other symbolic forms were
either shaped along the principles of language or, if they are of
independent origin, they were adapted to language. Therefore, it
seems necessary to gain first a good explanation of language.
The consideration of other symbolic forms as possible
elucidation of the origin of language is rather a methodological
strategy, based on the fact that we have evidence on the other
symbolic forms (tool industries, color pigments, cave art) before
we have (written) records of language.
Wolfgang Wildgen
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