Lecture 1
Introduction
1
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Origins” of language (not “Origin”):
 Biological
 Ecological
 Social
 Cultural
 Linguistic
- factors and processes, from about 6 million years
up to now, leading to present day languages
(and human beings)
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3

Understand the nature of language
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Understand better who we are (i.e. human
nature)
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Understand better the nature of evolution,
and the interconnectedness of all living
beings
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Language
Sign use
Consciousness
Life
5
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The Linguistics Society of Paris, 1866:
forbidding speculation on the origin of
language
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“The is a long history of study of origin of
language, asking how it arose from calls of
apes and so forth. That investigation in my
view is a complete waste of time…”
(Chomsky 1988: 183)
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“We argue that an understanding of the faculty
of language requires substantial interdisciplinary
cooperation.”
(Hauser, Chomsky and Fitch 2002: 1569)

“Language evolution research must necessarily
be cross-disciplinary in order to provide
sufficient constraints on theorizing to make it a
legitimate scientific inquiry”
(Christiansen and Kirby 2003: 300)
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1996 Edinburgh
1998 London
2000 Paris
2002 Harvard
2004 Leipzig
2006 Rome
2008 Barcelona
2010 Utrecht
Cultural comparsion: Main semiotic categories
(whole corpus, components per utterance)
0,7
0,6
0,5
0,4
0,3
0,2
0,1
0
Sw e
Thai
Deictic
Iconic
Emblematic
“Language evolution research must
necessarily be cross-disciplinary…”
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Primatology: an approximate idea of the START
of the process (“the last common ancestor”,
LCA)
Evolutionary theory (biology/psychology): the
PATH (selective pressures etc)
Paleontology: fossils and artifacts (“stones and
bones”)
Cultural anthropology: e.g. hunter gather
societies
Developmental linguistics: analogies with
evolution + “learned vs. innate”
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Historical linguistics: processes of historical
change, grammaticalization and “linguistic
selection” (cf. Heine & Kuteva 2002)
Cognitive science, psycho/neuro-linguistics:
the biological bases for language and thought
Semiotics: language in relation to other
semiotic resources: calls, gestures, pictures
etc. (cf. Burling 2005)
Linguistics: as good idea as possible of the
OUTCOME
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What is it that evolved?
(“innate syntax”, capacity for sign use, vocal
imitation…?)
How did it evolve?
(pre-adaptations, stages, transitions…)
When and where did it evolve?
(Locate the processes in time and space)
Why did it evolve?
(ecological changes, selective pressures…)
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
Merlin Donald, Origins of the Modern Mind,
(1991): mimesis, cultural evolution

Terrance Deacon, The Symbolic Species (1997):
brain-language co-evolution
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Michael Tomasello, The Evolution of Human
Communication (2008): gesture and shared
intentionality
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Derek Bickerton, Adam’s Tongue (2009): niche
construction, a plausible “why” story
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Sverker Johansson, Origins of Language:
Contraints on Hypotheses (2005)
 As the title says: first constraints, then evaluation
of hypotheses
 Goal: not a definite theory, but limiting the space
of probability
 Balanced, and objective (though the author was
my student…)
 Guest lecture on Nov 12: Biological and cultural
evolution
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Date
5/11
9/11
12/11
Weekday
Fri
Tue
Fri
16/11
23/11
Tue
Tue
26/11
Fri
30/11
Tue
3/12
Fri
7/12
Tue
10/12
Fri
14/12
Tue
17/12
11/1
Fri
Tue
18/1
Fri
Topic
Introduction
What is language?
Evolution: natural and
cultural
The human ancestry tree
Body and brain for
language
Systems of animal
communication
Studies of ”animal
language”
Language and
consciousness
Hypotheses and debates on
language evolution
Why did language evolve?
Literature
Chap 1
Chap 2 + Burling
Chap 3
Chap 4
Chap 5 + Zlatev2008a
Chap 6
Chap 7
Chap 8 + Zlatev2008b
Chap 9
Chap 10
Stages in the evolution of
language
Summary
Group presentations
Chap 11+
HeineKuteva2002
Chap 12
(take home exam
given)
Deadline for submission of essay or take-home exam
14
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Group project
 One page, 19/11
 Presentation 11/1 2011
Take-home exam, given out Jan 11, 2011
OR
 Independent essay on a relevant topic
(possibly related to group project)
(Submitted: Jan 18, 2011)
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15
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Watch the following film clip (about 2
minutes from National Geographic: The
Ultimate Survivor). Discuss:
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In which ways is Lucy similar to and different
from other great apes?
What kind of implications do the differences
have for hominid evolution? (It is not certain
that “Lucy” (Australopithecus afarensis) was
our direct ancestor.)
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“The shape and function of the human body are
determined in almost every detail, by and for, the
upright posture” (Erwin Straus 1966: 138), e.g.
Space and perception: more importance to vision
than olfaction (also, more “distant vision”: planning)
 Freeing the hands: grasping, manipulating,
gesturing…
 Olfactory mechanisms do not dominate facial
structure: vocalization
 “Premature” birth: prolonged immaturity (neotony),
profound influences on ontogentic development
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It is mistaken to think that evolution is
provoked by brain growth (or “rewiring”)
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Rather, changes occur first in the body (and
behavior), and the brain evolves only with
time
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“In some small group from which we all descend,
a rewiring of the brain took place yeilding the
operation of unbounded Merge… The individual
so rewired had many advantages: capacities for
complex thought, planning, interpretation and
so on. The capacity is transmitted to offspring,
coming to predominate. At that stage, there
would be an advantage to externalization…”
(Chomsky 2005, talk at State University, NY,
quoted by Bickerton 2009: 181)
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