Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of language and literature
Wolfgang Wildgen (University of
Bremen, Germany)
Linguistic functionalism in an
evolutionary context
40th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica
Europaea
29 August - 1 September 2007
University of Joensuu, Finland
Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Classical functionalism
• Functionalism in the tradition of Jakobson and Martinet is
often understood in terms of an optimization of communication (a minimum of phonological mergers, of ambiguity,
etc.).
• In Martinet’s concept of economy of linguistic change a
level of economy is stabilized (after some kind of structural
loss) or the system shifts from one economic maximum to
a neighboring one.
• One general tendency is that globally all current (fullfletched) languages (not jargons and pidgins) are at the
same level of functionality; changes are only local shifts in
a field of multiple (and grossly equivalent) alternatives.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Functionalism and evolution
• If one considers long-ranging linguistic changes (millennia) or the development after some out of Africa move, i.e., since some proto-sapienslanguage (100-200,000 y BP), it is rather obvious that the role of language
in larger and highly organized societies must have affected the framework
in which functions and degrees of optimization are defined.
• An even bigger challenge to functionalism occurs in the context of some
protolanguage, which describes the transition between the last common
ancestor of humans and chimpanzees (LCA) in the period between
australopithecines, Homo erectus and archaic Homo sapiens. Here
functionalism has to be linked to the Darwinian notion of selection and the
question arises what kind of selection was responsible for the emergence of
language: overall selection by the environment, sexual selection, social
(kin) selection or some combination with body-internal equilibriums
between different selective pressures (a kind of self organization or
morphogenetic process).
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Emergence of functions
The so-called functions of language (cf. Bühler and
Jakobson) had to emerge from a prior configuration of
communicative and behavioral functions, which were
already present in mammals. Thus the theoretical
foundation of functionalism in a larger context asks for:
• The origin of specific functions of language in the field of
more general communicative and social functions. How
can new functions emerge?
• A measure of the degree to which a function or a criterion
for selection is fulfilled, i.e., a measure of optimization for
functions. This questions points to processes of selforganization and levels of complexity.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Basic goals
The goal of this contribution is to:
• Ground the major concepts of linguistic functionalism in a Darwinian notion of selection.
• Introduce the idea of self-organization in order to
explain the emergence of new functions.
• Specify measures of success, which allow for
optimization and a dynamics of parallel optima (a
landscape of optima between which a system can
choose and which control its transformation).
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Martinet’s functionalism and Darwinism
• André Martinet turned radically against Saussure’s preference for synchrony (and a theoretical devaluation of diachrony) and against the neglect of
language usage (parole) and thus of social variants which rival with a given
linguistic norm. Already in his first treatise on French phonology (1933) he
used the criterion “rendement fonctionnel”, i.e., functional load as measured
by the frequency and relevance of a phonemic contrast. He developed this
aspect further using the law of “least effort” applied to language by Zipf
(1949). Finally, he proposed the principle of linguistic economy, which he
exemplified in his treatise on diachronic phonology (first published in 1955:
Économie des changements phonétiques). As in Trubetzkoy’s phonology,
the function of information dominates although Martinet mentions Bühler's
tripartition of communicative functions taking the perspective of the hearer.
He says (Martinet, 1975: 35):
• “L’auditeur, s’il connaît la langue employée, fait inconsciemment le tri entre
ce qui le renseigne sur l’identité du locuteur, ce qui l’informe de son état
d’esprit et de son humeur veut communiquer au moyen de la langue dont il
se sert. “
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Three forces of change
Martinet (1975: 39) distinguished three types of (selective)
forces:
• Needs of a society in terms of communication (“nouveaux
besoins d’une société en matière de communication”).
• The internal dynamics of the linguistic systems governed
by conflicting forces as the effort (for speakers/hearers)
and the result (efficient transfer of information).
• The system must achieve or retrieve a state of equilibrium
between these forces. This trait is called dynamic.
• As the learning of language is mainly an accumulative
process of imitations, which result into traditions, the
resulting language has a certain tendency to resist against
language change.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
“Darwin’s paradox” (Labov)
• Labov (2001: 6-10) compares explicitly his observations on linguistic
change with citations from Darwin’s book: The Descent of Man
(1871) and he calls the underlying problem “Darwin’s paradox”. Here
is his formulation of the paradox:
• “The evolution of species and the evolution of language are identical
in form, although their fundamental causes are completely different.”
(ibidem: 14)
• Labov points to the fact that the principle of Darwinian selection
states the fundamental mechanism of biological evolution, whereas
in languages rather the search for novelty or fashions governs the
direction of change (ibidem: 14 f.). Thus the parallelism is only a
superficial one, insofar as in the evolution of languages the
fundamental (Darwinean) mechanisms responsible for the evolution
of a species is absent.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Major periods of radical change
• Inside the well documented family of Romance languages (appr.
2,000-3,000 y). Martinet mentions the change of needs in highly
organized empires like the Roman one and Bickakjian (2002)
interprets changes in Romance and Germanic languages as having
“advantages” for the speakers and hearers.
• Inside the family of Indo-European languages (appr. 7,000 y) or
inside some macro-phyla (14,000 y).
• Language changes after the out of Africa migration of modern
humans (100,000 to 70,000 y).
• Changes in language capacity after some proto-language used by
Homo erectus/Homo ergaster populations, from which the modern
species Homo sapiens evolved (400,000 to 200,000 y). This would
point to the before or during the first out of Africa migration (2,3 to
1,6 my).
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Sign-functions and their evolutionary significance
Meta-representation (poetic function)
representation
Human language
Semiotic sign
Animal communication
Non-semiotic sign
expression
appeal
For Bühler, functions (aims, intentions) are kinds of vital needs and thus presuppose the
level of life (of animals). If such needs (or instincts in traditional terminology) are generalized beyond animals and humans, a higher level of generalization can be reached.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
The evolutionary interpretation of the triad of
functions
• The last two functions, expression and appeal are strongly
linked, because the use and meaning of expressive acts
asks implicitly for some receiver and appeal is without
effect if no expressive content is transferred. We can use
the label “social communication” (social calls, grooming,
body postures, etc.) as a cover-term for both and
distinguish it from functional referentiality (which first
appears in the alarm-calls of e.g. velvet-monkeys). This
simplifies Bühler’s triangle to a binary opposition between
social communication (expression/appeal) and reference to
the world common to all participants.
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Theory of language and semiotics
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The transition to humans
If representation is in its first stages already present in socially
organized primates (or even in monkeys), the transition to
humans concerns mainly:
• The enrichment of representation, i.e., the lexicon and via selforganization the syntax; and
• The emergence of meta-functions.
• The most prominent case of meta-function concerns
propositional attitudes and explicit performatives:
– I believe that a snail is in the tree.
– I tell you that a snail is in the tree.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
If in a further step one assumes that representation emerges
from ecological cognition (categorization of an ecology)
and expression/appeal from some structure of the group
(primitive, non-conscious social categorization of behavior),
one obtains three inclusive levels,
• where the inner circle is reached by all animals with a
social organization and specific reactions (perception
/motor control) to their environment,
• the middle circle concerns animal communication with a
minimal reference to the context and
• the outer circle encompasses humans (and possibly some
primates with self-awareness). The functions in Bühler’s
triad emerge from ecological categories and from social
categories already apparent in animal behavior.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Functional hierarchy at three levels
Metarepresentation
Representation
Ecological
categories
Social
cognition
Expression/appeal
Metacommunication
The inner circle is
reached by all animals
with a social
organization and
specific reactions to
their environment,
the middle circle
concerns animal
communication with a
minimal reference to
the context and
the outer circle
encompasses humans
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
The local differentiation of the
referential function
1.
Increase of social vocabulary referring to actions in the group (cf.
the kinship terminology) and in relation to preys and predators (cf.
the alarm calls as base line).
2. The increase in linguistically labeled distinctions in the ambient
world; i.e., the differentiation of the lexicon of flora and fauna.
3. The complexity of utterance organization, i.e., the emergence of
syntax.
As in child development, the increase of the lexicon (1 and 2) asks for
a proper phonological organization. Therefore, phonology
(enabled be an efficient cognition/memory/motor planning of
phonetic sequences) is a self-organized outcome of an increased
lexicon. In a similar way syntax is a self-organized consequence of
larger utterances, which are less context-dependent.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Self-organization and functionalism
In relation to overall selective pressure this means that:
• Adequate cognitive (perceptual, motor and memory) skills must be
available. This increase is related to a bigger and more energy
consuming brain, which in turn must be “paid” by the availability of
high-energy food.
• The power of the linguistic system can be decomposed in many
different ways and distributed over the principal components:
phonology, lexicon, syntax, discourse, i.e., many equally powerful
forms of organization are possible. This is the basis for (de
Saussure’s) arbitrariness in the lexicon and in many areas of
morphology, syntax, and discourse.
As a consequence, it becomes impossible to judge the functional power
of a language in relation only to sub-components. Moreover, the
context of usage becomes an important factor.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Selective value of communication and
symbolic behavior
• All functional models of communication should ask for the survival
value of communication, because in a Darwinian framework only the
fertility of the species (not its cleverness) counts. As communication
is a type of information-sharing, a concept of (strong) reciprocity is
needed. Under what circumstances did (reciprocal) sharing of
information pay off?
• The sharing of information on the ecology, on one’s own mind and on
social relations (expression/appeal) follows from strong reciprocity.
It also enforces a level of truthfulness of symbolic behavior. Cheating
and lying by means of symbolic forms is, however, an alternative
corresponding to the within-group selection of egotists. The
equilibrium of both strategies and its stability is a phenomenon, which
asks for further elucidation.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Dunbar’s hypothesis
• Dunbar (1997) found that chimpanzees employ 20% of their time in
grooming. These practices are necessary to uphold social solidarity,
social roles (hierarchies), to control conflicts, etc.; i.e., grooming is a
semiotic activity, a ritualized behavior abstracted from mutual
hygiene. In bonobos, sexual activities are also ritualized for social
purposes.
• He argues that the percentage of time spent on grooming-activities
depends on the size of the group. If the social organization of the
group tends to larger communities, these techniques of solidarity and
social peace become energetically too expensive. Vocal communication, chatting, simply construing vocalized contexts of solidarity is
an alternative. The most proficient actors in social communication get
dominant roles in the tribe and reproduce at a higher rate. A run-away
process makes this competence desirable and creates the necessary
social power.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Levels of selection and language
• In actual evolutionary biology a dispute arose about the proper units
of selection: Are genes selected or organisms? Dawkins distinguishes between replicators (genes) and vehicles (organisms). For
selection by sexual partners, rivals, predators, ecological contexts
only the vehicles, i.e., the entities which contain genes are visible,
may die or survive (and procreate).
• Other scientists proposed families, social groups or subspecies as
entities of selection. This seems to be plausible, if a species shows a
complex social organization, with a differentiation of roles and a high
level of altruistic behavior. As this is certainly true for human societies
and linguistic communities this debate is relevant for linguistic
functionalism. Are populations, communities selected in relation to
the level of linguistic competence or linguistic efficiency?
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Selection at different levels beyond the genes
• The genetic code (DNA) as a complex organization may
select the activity and effect of genes which often rivals for
resources in the translation process (RNA) and in epigenesis.
• Specific cellular assemblies may be selected over others.
Thus cancer cells can grow rapidly and even destroy the
surrounding tissue, because under certain conditions they
have a selective advantage. In the brain different cellassemblies may rival for dominance and be selected or not.
Thus brain activity can be understood as complex interaction
between cellular agents under selection pressure.
• The human organism as a whole is composed of many
organs, which compete for resources.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Levels of selection beyond the gene
• Body internal complexes under selective pressure.
• Individual organisms under selective pressure (the classical case discussed
by Darwin).
• Kin-selection. Kins share genes, e.g., mother and daughter, or clans based
on kinship. They form coalitions in search for resources or in defense
against other individuals or groups (in a metaphorical sense kin-groups act
in favor of the permanence and expansion of their genes; cf. Dawkins,
1994).
• Larger social groups sharing genetic features, or, in the case of humans,
culture and language, may be the relevant units of selection. At the stage of
civilizations cultural traditions and communalities may act like genetic
proximity. If this case, biological selection is replaced by cultural selection.
As Dunbar showed, cultural selection is, however, grounded in biological
selection, which is only effective indirectly.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Darwin’s principles
• The principle of serviceable associated Habits. — Certain complex
actions are of direct or indirect service under certain states of the
mind, in order to relieve or gratify certain sensations, desires &c.; and
whenever the same state of mind is induced, however feebly, there is
a tendency through the force of habit and association for the same
movement to be performed, though they may not then be of the least
use. (Darwin, 1872/1969: 28 f.)
• The principle of Antithesis. — ... when a directly opposite state of
mind is induced, there is a strong and involuntary tendency to the
performance of movements of a directly opposite nature, though
these are of no use; and such movements are in some cases highly
expressive (ibidem).
• The principles of actions due to the constitution of the Nervous
System, independently from the first of the Will, and independently to
a certain extent of Habit (ibidem).
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Comparison with Martinet’s levels
• The first criterion of Martinet: needs driving the evolution of
language, opens a large field. Certainly the ecology and the
social environment in the different stages of humanization were
radically different.
• Martinet’s second criterion, i.e. conflicting forces and the search
for an equilibrium of forces in the language system (at the
levels of: phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon) can be
related to selective forces in the brain; cf. Darwin’s last
principle.
• The third criterion mentioned by Martinet; the accumulation and
maintenance of traditions has an analogue in Darwin’s first
principle which mentions “serviceable habits”.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Levels of social evolution and its
consequences for language
• With the rise of hunter gatherer populations (probably since some 100.000 y
BP) complicated rules of kinship classification were developed.
• The stage of large civilizations with long ranging exchange and global
cultural patterns may have begun with the cave painters in Europe and
Northern Africa (Sahara). With the Neolithic revolution concentrated highly
dense areas of habitation arose. This led to the first well documented high
civilizations with writing system in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India (perhaps
China) with central power, social hierarchies, towns, armies, fixed religions
etc.
• The functional differences we may observe between the modes of
communication of hunters/gatherers, agricultural populations and modern
industrial societies can help us to imagine the tremendous differences in the
functional profile of languages (the pragmatics) which existed 1 million →
500,000 → 100,000 y → 40.000 y → 5.000 y ago.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Functional differences and social codes
• Functional differences are not necessarily linked to differences of
linguistic complexity. Since all human populations living today have
the same cognitive level (and the same statistical range of variation
in the cognitive equipment) their languages are cognitively at the
same level.
• In spite of this, the language developed and used can respond to
different needs. Once an adult learner has adapted his linguistic
competence to a specific profile (of needs), he may have difficulties
to readapt to a different profile (characteristic of other societies,
cultures, social groups). Normally, the child in the process of
socialization and language acquisition can overcome this barrier (if
she is exposed in her behavioral training to other communicative
profiles). Therefore, one has to differentiate between communicative profile and the complexity of grammars. Only the first ones
react to cultural and ecological differences.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Conclusion
• Linguistic functionalism can in principle be grounded by Darwinian
principles of selection, although differences in the functional profile do
not directly affect the genetic basis of language. As evolution does not
stop, all forces, which are operative in the speciation of humans and in
the emergence of human language capacity are still there and relevant.
The effect of these forces becomes only visible after a very long
(evolutionary) time, but many microprocesses of social adaptation and
language change operate in the framework defined by evolutionary
biology (and with reference to Darwinian selection).
• This framing can be neglected as long as the biological/neural
architecture and dynamics of language have not been discovered or
are not a major concern of linguistic research. With the rise of
comparative ethology and neurolinguistics, however, the grounding of
linguistic functionalism in the natural sciences and mainly in
evolutionary biology became an unavoidable necessity.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
Some bibliographical suggestions
• Bichakjian, Bernard H. (2002). Language in a Darwinian Perspective.
Bern: Lang.
• Darwin, Charles (1872/1969). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and
Animals. [Reprint, 1969]. Culture et Civilisation, Brussels [1st edition
London 1872].
• Dawkins, Richard (1994). Das egoistische Gen., Heidelberg: Spektrum
Verlag. (English original title: The Selfish Gene.)
• Dunbar, Robin (1997). Groups, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language.
In: Schmitt et al. (Eds.), New Aspects of Humans Ethology. New York:
Plenum Press.
• Keller, Laurent (ed), 1999. Levels of Selection in Evolution. Princeton:
Princeton U.P.
• Labov, William, 2001. Principles of Linguistic Change, vol. 2: Social
factors. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Martinet, André, 1975. Studies in Functional Syntax. München: Fink.
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Theory of language and semiotics
Faculty of Language and Literature
• Schleicher, 1863, Die Darwinsche Theorie und die Sprachwissenschaft,
Bohlau, Weimar.
• Tomasello, M. (1999). The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Harvard
University Press.
• Wildgen, Wolfgang 1977a. Differentielle Linguistik, Entwurf eines Modells
zur Beschreibung und Messung semantischer und pragmatischer Variation.
Tübingen: Niemeyer.
• Wildgen, Wolfgang, 1977b. Kommunikativer Stil und Sozialisation. Eine
empirische Untersuchung. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
• Wildgen, Wolfgang 1994. Process, Image, and Meaning. A Realistic Model
of the Meanings of Sentences and Narrative Texts, Amsterdam: Benjamins.
• Wildgen, Wolfgang,, 2003a. Die Sprache – Cassirers Auseinandersetzung
mit der zeitgenössischen Sprachwissenschaft und Sprachtheorie, in:
Sandkühler, Hans Jörg and Detlev Pätzold (eds.), 2003. Kultur und Symbol.
Ein Handbuch zur Philosophie Ernst Cassirers, Kap. 6, 148-174.
• Wildgen, Wolfgang, 2004. The Evolution of Human Languages. Scenarios,
Principles, and Cultural Evolution, Amsterdam: Benjamins.
• Wildgen, Wolfgang, forthcoming 2008. Kognitive Grammatik. Klassische
Paradigmen und neue Perspektiven, Berlin: De Gruyter.
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