Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language Robin Dunbar opens GROOMING, GOSSIP, AND THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE, his study of language, by evoking … 1999. - reconstruction of pre-history of language: analysis of earliest forms of language, comparison, assumptions on possible common ancestor of language Now, in this issue of Current Biology , Hruschka and colleagues [3] have identified regular sound change as a process similar to concerted evolution … - closest relatives are Frisian and Dutch One major problem remains, however; most models about language origins do not readily lend themselves to the formation of testable hypotheses, or rigorous testing of any sort. The kind of information that language was designed to carry was not about the physical world, but rather about the social world. "Numerous and varied explanations have been put forth to explain how humans acquired language—many of which date back to the time of the Paris ban. - Completely free - with ISBN ", (Adam Kendon, "Language and Gesture: Unity or Duality?" Schrift: seit d. Besetzung Britanniens durch Römer, religiöse Texte, Gesetzestexte, wissenschaftl. . The Industrial Revolution created new means of transportation like steamships and trains. - comparison of descriptions of a given language across different points of time (historical linguistics): diachronic approach, descriptions of language are compared across the time dimension, results are types of change like spelling, lexical inventories, word formation, word meaning, syntax,... Over the centuries, many theories have been put forward—and almost all of them have been challenged, discounted, and ridiculed. by David McNeill. Summary College University of Salzburg Grade 2,00 Author MA Bianca Lehner (Author) Year 2014 Pages 13 Catalog Number V437806 ISBN … bee dance), - commonalities among languages of the world: vowels and consonants, word units, sentence units, means for expressing time relations What data will allow us to conclude that one model or another best explains how language arose? - studies of documents from a given period of time in past (philology): oldest texts analysed from 800 A.D., descriptive synchronic study, prerequisite to the study of language change Some of the more fanciful explanations have been given nicknames, mainly to the effect of dismissal by ridicule. From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. . - withdrawal of Roman legions in 499 A.D., left cultural infrastructure and settlements with Latin names, - Germanic people increasingly arrived and settled south and east of British Isles, small kingdoms emerged (Alfred the Great – Wessex as leading kingdom), - Old English: Engleland for “land of the Angles”, - language of settlers in contact with Latin, Celtic and Old Danish – language mixing, - Battle of Hastings, 1066: beginning of Norman rule, mixing of Germanic and Romance language, end of Old English (exclusively Germanic), - manuscripts: scattered inscriptions (in Runic alphabet), no written evidence, - literate age began under leadership of St.Augustine in 597, developed in monasteries -> translation of church-related texts, - transfer of orally transmitted bits of poetry into written form (Beowolf), - descriptive texts: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, - Old English no longer readable without specific bits of knowledge, - spelling: two different characters to represent Modern English dental fricative, - phonemes: sch represented as sc, dsch as different phonemes like g and j, - lexicon: majority of words Germanic origin, but have been replaced now, - morpho-syntax: Old English highly inflected language, strict word order regulations not necessary – noun inflection in stem-gender-case-number (Modern English: two inflectional endings – genitive case and singular/plural); verb inflection tendency for simplification of morphological verbal system (strong verbs converted into weak verbs, 4 defining forms for strong verbs reduced to 3 and then 2, past form assumed present meaning, modal verbs no -s ending or infinitive), - Runenschrift: Angelsachsen nicht schreibkundig, keine schriftlichen Dokumente, runisches Zeichensystem = Futhark, Rune bedeutet Geheimnis, ursprünglich Verschlüsselungsverfahren, Ähnlichkeit mit Buchstaben -> wahrscheinl. Thanks to the rise of the British Empire, advances in technology and the Industrial Revolution between 1760 and 1840, new words began to emerge. . Grammar would have been equally useful whether language evolved to subserve a social or a technological function. - Rückschlüsse aus dem Endprodukt  The New York Review of Books, August 18, 2016). and 410 A.D. (Latin) This is not a new perspective--it is perhaps as old as nonreligious speculation about the way human language may have begun. First language. - Verschiedene Disziplinen geben verschiedene Antworten: sozialer Zusammenhalt durch Sprache, vom Spracherwerb des Kleinkindes auf den der menschl. - Übernahmen aus anderen Sprachen nur wo Konzepte oder Einrichtungen aus anderen Kulturgemeinschaften übernommen wurden, parallel dazu Lehnübersetzungen, - Syntax dem Deutschen ähnlicher als dem Neuenglisch, weil stark flektierte Sprache In 1866, the Linguistic Society of Paris banned any discussion of the topic: "The Society will accept no communication concerning either the origin of language or the creation of a universal language." word stress adapted or not) Indogermanisch (besteht aus 140 Einzelsprachen), mit der friedlichen Ausbreitung der Landwirtschaft durchgesetzt, Sesshaftigkeit krempelte Leben, Kultur, soziale Organisation der Menschen um – Europa als Endpunkt der Wanderungen (Sprachen haben Wurzeln, wo Landwirtschaft entstand), - languages are subject to change – different approaches - symbolising syllables – wedge-shaped signs, representing sounds/consonants – sign for a word to designate initial sound They chattered away for the mere pleasure of chattering . ", (Esa Itkonen, Analogy as Structure and Process: Approaches in Linguistics, Cognitive Psychology and Philosophy of Science. . THE EVOLUTION OF FILM LANGUAGE by André Bazin a synthesis of three articles, by Bazin, the first written for Vingt ans de cinema à Venise (1952), the second … English is a language in the Germanic branchof the Indo-European language family, but it has changed immensely from these Germanic roots. The expression language origins refers to theories pertaining to the emergence and development of … Language is always evolving and the English language might have gone through the quickest phase of evolution which can be seen through examples of … Evolution of Language. There's the 'bow-wow' model in which language originated as imitations of animal cries. The time range for the evolution of language or its anatomical prerequisites extends, at least in principle, from the phylogenetic divergence of Homo (2.3 to 2.4 million … very helpful in making sounds such as f or v. Human lips have much more intricate muscle lacing than is found in other primates and their resulting flexibility certainly helps in making sounds like p, b, and m. In fact, the b and m sounds are the most widely attested in the vocalizations made by human infants during their first year, no matter which language their parents are using. - top-down process: by decisions made in influential institutions, secure social diffusion (e.g. resembles the speech of little baby himself, before he begins to frame his own language after the pattern of the grownups; the language of our remote forefathers was like that ceaseless humming and crooning with which no thoughts are as yet connected, which merely amuses and delights the little one. These regularities have allowed linguists to discover many of the processes of language evolution, and how language evolution may be similar to biological evolution. Manual gestures led to the evolution of language and this theory is known as Gestural Theory. - hierarchische Dimension: Richtung Überordnung (Abstraktheit – Arten von Tieren), Richtung Unterordnung (Spezialisierung – einzelne Rassen), assoziative Vernetzung von Wissen (Komplexität) The expression language origins refers to theories pertaining to the emergence and development of language in human societies. Transmission to new learners, communicative use, interactions among speakers in a community, and the structure of the world, all leave their imprint on the structure of languages (see Figure 2 for a description of two structural design features of language that have been claimed to be adaptations arising from cultural evolution… - Indo-European -> Proto-Germanic -> West-Germanic -> Old English ", (Norman A. Johnson, Darwinian Detectives: Revealing the Natural History of Genes and Genomes. It follows from the technological hypothesis that speech was a later addition to human language, but how stone tool-making relates to speech evolution remains unclear. The term 'protolanguage' has been widely used to describe this one-word stage, where there is vocabulary but no grammar. [Gordon] Hewes (1973; 1974; 1976) was one of the first modern proponents of a gestural origins theory. iconic signs (pictograms), later symbolic signs (hieroglyphs) ", (R.L. verwendet In the 'poo-poo' model, language started from emotional interjections. - agonistic interaction: contests and aggression between individuals . Such characteristics are . Whether any early humans possessed language, or didn’t, has had to be inferred from indirect proxy indicators. In his private notebooks, he reflected on the communicative powers of animals, their ability to learn new sounds and even to associate them with words. Cambridge University Press, 2000), "[T]he size of human social groups gives rise to a serious problem: grooming is the mechanism that is used to bond social groups among primates, but human groups are so large that it would be impossible to invest enough time in grooming to bond groups of this size effectively. Texte, Schreibkompetenz in Klöstern, Texte in altengl. Language originated as play, and the organs of speech were first trained in this singing sport of idle hours. Language … by Morten H. Christiansen and Simon Kirby. In 1945, the … : Five Theories on the Origins of Language, Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia, M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester, B.A., English, State University of New York. . - interpretation of animal communication: more complex and subtle than believed, multiple distinct meanings depending on context (relaxion or anxiety,…), - keine Aufzeichnungen aus der Frühzeit Phonetician Philip Lieberman has persuasively argued that the ultimate cause of the human lowered larynx is its function in producing different vowels. Lexikon weitgehend homogon, germanischer Ursprung, neue Bezeichnungen durch Wortbildungsmöglichkeiten (aus Substantiv wird Adjektiv durch Suffigierung, aus Adjektiv wird Adverb durch Suffigierung, Substantiv+Substantiv als neues Wort) - 1500-1650: Early Modern English (Renaissance English), radical change in vowel quality, Shakespeare, King James Bible Language evolution represents a special kind of adaptation, in part because language … - Belege für gesprochene Sprache, - Wissen in 3 Richtungen und in 2 Dimensionen entwickelt - growing specialisation brought specific forms of knowledge and communication - two types: bottom-up process, top-down process Dr. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks. Oxford University Press, 2003), - "[P]rimitive speakers were not reticent and reserved beings, but youthful men and women babbling merrily on, without being so particular about the meaning of each word. "All language, in the words of Ulrich Neisser (1976), is 'articulatory gesturing. - force for preserving the familiar predominated over force towards simplifying coding system, - natürliche Sprachen verändern sich laufend – was lost Sprachwandel aus, wieso entwickeln sich Sprachen in eine bestimmte Richtung? Brain imaging studies have revealed functional and anatomical associations between hand, oral and language cortical areas [ 10 ], suggesting that language … Approaches to the Evolution of Language. Notice the differences among the f… - Komplexität: Herstellung von Beziehungen – 3 Bestandteile (CRC-Unit), 3 Anforderungen (Adressierung von Konzepten, Abbildung komplexer Bausteine, Abbildung von Sichtweisen), zur Adressierung von Konzepten (Begriffe) Worteinheiten (Terme), Satzstrukturen, zur Abbildung von Sichtweisen aktiv-passiv Konstrukte, - 450-1066: Old English (Anglo-Saxon) from invasion of Germanic tribes to Battle of Hastings (historic events which had great impact on language), Beowolf, Alfred the Great Contemporary linguist Robbins Burling says that "anyone who has read widely in the literature on language origins cannot escape a sneaking sympathy with the Paris linguists. . "Today, opinion on the matter of language origins is still deeply divided. Late Modern English developed between 1800 and 2000. Otto Jespersen on Language as Play (1922), Divided Views on the Origins of Language (2016), The Sound 'Schwa' With Definition and Examples in English, Key Events in the History of the English Language, Sound Symbolism in English: Definition and Examples, The Theory of Poverty of the Stimulus in Language Development, Definition and Examples of Linguistic Prestige, Where Does Language Come From? Cultural Evolution of Language K Smith,UniversityofEdinburgh,Edinburgh,UK 2006ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved. What Robin Dunbar suggests -- and his research, whether in the realm of primatology or in that of gossip, confirms -- is that humans developed language to serve the purpose that grooming served, but far more efficiently. - systemic dimension: natural language codes fairly complex structured systems – external and internal influence (external: language contact through political, social or cultural change, innovations in business and technology; internal: gradual replacement of inflectional endings in favour of prepositions and word order, colloquial style, new lexical items accommodated, others obsolete), - proceed along different paths, often relate to social variables - Spezialisierung: über Konzepteigenschaften, definitorisches Merkmal, unterscheidendes Merkmal, Mehrfachklassifikation möglich – specifier-Funktionen der Sprache (Wortbildung, präpositionale Fügung, Attribute extreme rise of loanwords from Anglo-Norman French in English after 1066 – Middle English), changes in economy and technology, - standardisation of language: descriptive attitude, lexicography and language teaching have normative-descriptive attitude, achieve better standardisation of language and language teaching (dictionaries and grammar guides) - courtship rituals: attract or maintain attention of potential mate, cement a pair bond, display of body parts and body postures - most widely spoken: Celtic, oral transmission In the course of thinking about language and its evolution… [Adam] Kendon (1991: 215) also suggests that 'the first kind of behaviour that could be said to be functioning in anything like a linguistic fashion would have had to have been gestural.' . In the middle 1700s, Carolus Linnaeus came up with his taxonomic naming system, which grouped like species together and implied there was an evolution… - in urban rather than rural domains, among nobility, at court, in military domains - phonology: rich system of voiceless and voiced fricatives, retained in Modern English and neighbouring languages Note that the issue here is not the evolution of grammar as such, but the evolution of language. By about the end of the first year, the human larynx descends to its near-adult lowered position. - Morpheme: Vereinfachung bei grammatischen Morphemen (unterschiedliche Pluralbildung angeglichen auf –s) ', "We are not proposing that language began as gesture and became vocal. John Benjamins, 2005). Cambridge University Press, 2014). The Evolution of Programming Languages Course Notes for COMP 348 and COMP 6411 These notes may be copied for students who are taking ei-ther COMP 348 Principles of Programming Language… - investigation of external determinants of language change: correlate identified forms of language change to changes in society (e.g. - bottom-up: start out in non-standard varieties, e.g. This is a case of ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny, the growth of the individual reflecting the evolution of the species. The functions of language … - universal sentence constituents – indicative of biological structures of human brain, - language evolved as concomitant of cultural development – need emerged as knowledge of world developed .. Each language… "Divine origin [is the] conjecture that human language originated as a gift from God. The useful word 'hopefully' (long available to Germans as hoffentlich , and meaning 'it is to be hoped that') has in recent years been steamrollered into the English language … - in Fragesätzen VSO-Konstruktion ohne do - Predecessors of human language have following characteristics: found across different species, purpose of communication was alarm calls, iconic (meaning of signs derived, little learning involved), signs are multi-modal (acoustic and visual), polysemy of signs (1 sign – many meanings, e.g. Language Evolution, ed. ", (Robin I.A. . - general principles of language change: Rasmus Rask and Jakob Grimm found that changes in the domain of phonemes are fairly regular and affected sound system across the lexical inventory . in children, become standard when these generations are adult (social upgrading) – many typical characteristics never upgraded In contemplating how language arose, evolutionists frequently link the development of the brain to the appearance of languages. ", (George Yule, The Study of Language, 5th ed. Cambridge University Press, 1995), - "If, with [Dwight] Whitney, we think of 'language' as a complex of instrumentalities which serve in the expression of 'thought' (as he would say--one might not wish to put it quite like this today), then gesture is part of 'language.' - vowels and consonants – biology of human articulatory tract 1.3 Language evolution and biology We start by examining the uniqueness of language in biological terms, in comparison with other animal communication systems. - Neue Formen des Wissens zugänglich -> Wissen weitergeben -> Wissensmanagement: Ideen/Erfahrungen zusammenfassen (Konzeptbildung), Konzepte weiter differenzieren (Konzepthierarchien, Strukturwissen), Beziehungen zwischen Konzepten hierarchieübergreifend herstellen . - Handschriften aus Klöstern On the one hand, there are those who feel that language is so complex, and so deeply ingrained in the human condition, that it must have evolved slowly over immense periods of time. - SVO in Aussagesätzen in verschiedener Anordnung The scenario by which language evolved in humans to assist the coordination of working together (as on the pre-historic equivalent of a loading dock) has been nicknamed the 'yo-heave-ho' model. For those of us with an interest in language conceived of in this way, our task must include working out all the intricate ways in which gesture is used in relation to speech and of showing the circumstances in which the organization of each is differentiated from the other as well as the ways in which they overlap. . The Romans, who had controlled England for centuries, had … It can be argued, from a phylogenetic perspective, the origin of human sign languages is coincident with the origin of human languages; sign languages, that is, are likely to have been the first true languages. Jackendoff, Ray. "While we would agree with Kendon's strategy of examining the relationships among spoken and signed languages, pantomime, graphic depiction, and other modes of human representation, we are not convinced that placing gesture in opposition to speech leads to a productive framework for understanding the emergence of cognition and language. 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