Language and Culture Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006 The evolution of language

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Language and Culture Prof. R. Hickey SS 2006
The evolution of language
Melanie Lüth (Hauptstudium, TN)Ivo Tateo
(Hauptstudium, TN)Brigitte Knocke Martina
Kleinebreil (Grundstudium, TN/LN)Frauke
Skrobaschewsky (Hauptstudium, TN/LN)
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Table of Contents

• The Study of Language
• Language Origin
• The Evolution of Language
• The Emerge of Rule
• The Expansion of Language
• Diffusion of Language

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The Study of Language

• Melanie Lüth

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Theories

• language must have evolved between 100,000 to
  50,000 years ago some researchers date the
  evolving around 250,000 years ago
• Different ludicrous views
• Noahs Ark view Chinese as primitive language
  was spoken in the Ark and so survived the flood
• Lord Monboddo people learned different skills
  from different animals ? to sing and speak from
  birds by imitating

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Theories a bird-like skill

• ? only shows that parallel systems can
  emerge independently

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Evidences

• external clues from outside human
  language
• ? evolutionary theory, archaeology, anatomy and
  physiology, ethology, psychology, anthropology
• internal information from languages itself
• ? provided by linguistics
• ? pidgins and creoles are valuable sources

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The Amoeba Question

• Did language elaborate from a simple outline?
• Did a mish-mash become neat and orderly?
• bow-wow theory
• hunters imitated the sounds of animals they
  wanted to track down
• Rousseau/ Jespersen
• first languages were singable and more
  passionate became simple and methodical
• spaghetti junctions
• various possibilities existed and were used in
  the long run certain features were more likely to
  be chosen

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The Rabbit-out-of-hat problem

• language emerged fairly suddenly (like a rabbit
  out of a hat)
• mutation in hominid gene pool
• extra use for already enlarged brain
• but
• language evolved slowly over millennia

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Why do languages differ?

• new appearances could not be handled with
  properly (e.g. (new) thoughts could not be
  expressed properly)
• differences between and within languages are
  signs of a flexible and adjustable system
• Tower of Babel

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Why do languages differ?

• Swiss army knife view specialized linguistic
  system, which allows variation
• human mind as gadget with numerous specialized
  devices
• humans acquire language through a
  language-handling mechanism
• difference of language according to an inherited
  degree of flexibility
• Auntie Maggies remedy view languages differ
  because human general intelligence
  produced them
• language is one of many different tasks children
  have to encounter use the mind to sort out the
  way it works
• tasks can be encountered in different ways

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Why do languages differ?

• hard-wired - pre-programmed
• - do not have to be learned
• - instinctive
• - (Swiss army knife)
• soft-wired - can be acquired
• - have to be learned
• - Auntie Maggies remedy
• past nature nurture hard soft instinct
  learning controversies
• present innately guided behaviour

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Conclusion

• many theories scientific or non-scientific
  were propounded
• Amoeba Question and the rabbit-out-of-hat problem
• differing - Swiss Army Knife vs. Auntie
  Maggies remedy hard-wired vs. soft-wired
• - innately guided behaviour

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The origin of language

• Ivo Tateo

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The Humans history of evolution

• 175,000 BP
• 300,000 BP
• 1,5 m BP
• 2 m BP
• 3 m BP
• 4 m BP
• 4,5 m BP

• Homo sapiens sapiens (modern humans)
• Archaic Homo sapiens
• Homo erectus (upright man)
• Homo abilis (handy man)
• Homo (man)
• Australopithecus afarensis
• Australopithecus ramidus

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The principle of Natural Selection
In 1859 Charles Darwin published the book On the
origin of species in which he demonstrated that
Humans are the result of a long evolution. He
explained the principle of Natural Selection with
these words Any variation, if profitable to
an individual of any species will tend to the
preservation of that individual, and will be
generally inherited by its offspring. I have
called this principle by the term of Natural
Selection .
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How did Language emerge?

• Language emerged suddenly, as a rabbit out of a
  hat. This would be possible because humans are
  endowed with an innate language faculty (Chomsky).

• Language is the result of a long process,
  creeping upwards in complexity over millennia,
  like a snail creeping up a wall. Language
  capacity increased very slowly.

• Language evolution alternated between periods of
  stasis (stagnation) and periods of fast
  development (Eldredge and Gould).

• The most accredited theory is that of a
  language bonfire. After this theory, sparks of
  language have been flickering for a long time
  before language begun a fast evolution and then
  stabilized around 50,000 years ago.

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Representation of the Language Bonfire on a
graph
Complexity of language
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The development of Language
Key properties of Language
Interaction
Persuasion
The Grooming Theory grooming is for animals a
factor of social interaction as language for
humans. Maybe language is a substitution for
grooming, since - Humans are naked apes with
little hair for grooming - Great groups of
primates tend to abandon grooming
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The development of Language
Key properties of language
Interaction
Persuasion
The theory of mind The ability to deceive may be
an important prerequisite for language, which is
not only confined to humans. This process (we
may also talk about lying) implicates that the
individual is able to put himself into another
persons shoes and act to his own advantage.
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The search for the missing link
How did language get started? Many support the
gestural theory, which claims that sign language
is the missing link between the primate
communication and human language. These
supporters emphasize four reasons

• The gestural origin of speech
• Sign language is easier than speech

• The idea that gestures are universal
• Neurological connection between speech and
  movements

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Basic requirements for human language
b Sound-producing b Sound-receiving b
Sound-planning b Sound-interpreting
The human voice-box or larynx is more streamlined
than that of other primates it is also
positioned lower than in other primates. The
particular position of the larynx, the complexity
of the muscular tongue and the possibility to
produce vowels via mouth, allow the human beings
to produce three fairly extreme
vowels i a u
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Conclusion
Language appeared about 200,000 years ago and
developed very fast between 100,000 and 75,000
years ago (language bonfire theory) Language
probably emerged to satisfy a need of interaction
or to influence other individuals Language
probably developed from gesture. Sign language
has been the intermediate between the two
Primate communication
Sign language
Human language
Sound-producing, sound-receiving, sound-planning,
sound-interpreting mechanisms and the particular
position of the larynx, among others, allow the
human beings to produce sounds which are unique
to our species.
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The evolution of language

• The emergence of rules -
• Brigitte Knocke

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The emergence of rules

• A language needs rules. Communication would
  break down if there were no agreed ways of
  combining linguistic units.
• In theory there are nearly endless possibilities
  to combine words and sounds. However, any full
  language has narrowed down the range of
  possibilities to a few allowable combinations
• gt the grammar.

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How could grammar have arisen in the evolution of
language?

• Simple rules have two requirements
• different types of basic units must exist
• ways of combining the units must be agreed

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• Different types of basic words
• Nouns are the basic words, which arose before
  other types of words were developed
• Nouns and verbs together constituted the first
  grammar gt humans could mentally distinguish
  things and people from actions and events for a
  long time before establishing them as nouns and
  verbs.
• Nouns and verbs are regarded as the universal
  categories of all languages.

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The combination of words as a requirement for the
emergence of grammar

• Grammar emerged when noun-type words were
  combined with verb-type words.
• Two possible ways by which nouns and verbs could
  have been combined
•  
• 1. build-up-route
• 2. re-analysis -route

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The build-up route

• ....assumes that a large number of single words
  accumulated. These were words of different types,
  some involving things, others actions. At a later
  stage these words were combined.
•  
• e.g. child mummy open as a request for
  Mummy please open this

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The re-analysis route

• ...assumes that words, mainly nouns, were
  already being combined, but that sometimes more
  than one interpretation was possible
• e.g. the word singsing in Tok Pisin (pidgin,
  Papua New Guinea)
• (singsing any festival which involves dancing
  and singing)
• ð  mi singsing means I went to the song and
  dance festival or I sang and danced

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Consistent ordering of words

• There are several possibilities as to how a firm
  word order might have happened in the evolution
  of languages
• the signing of chimps
• the utterances of Vincent, a child of deaf
  parents
• the predispositions of the human mind

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1. The signing of chimps - Nim Chimpsky

• At first sight Nims signing was quite unordered.
• However Nim had some preferences
• -- food was placed first grape eat, banana Nim
  eat, apple
• me eat
• --more at the beginning more eat, more
  tickle, more drink,..
• --his own name at the end
• --repetition of words eat Nim eat, Nim eat
  Nim
• ð  Nims ordering resembles the process found
  when a language acquires new word-order rules
• mild stylistic preferences change into strong
  preferences which stabilize, become a habit and
  form a pattern which influences the formation of
  others.

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2. The utterances of Vincent, child of deaf
parents

• Vincent hearing child of deaf parents who taught
  him sign language. He did not speak and heard
  sounds only by watching television. He was first
  exposed to speak English when he was over three
  years old.
• at first his speech was barely intelligible and
  only slowly his speech became clear
• short utterances You uh-oh
• limited vocabulary puter was a general,
  all-purpose verb.
• You several meanings you, he, she
• tendency to copy-around a word, to put one form
  on both sides of another You house you

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• The way Vincent put words together was bizarre.
• However when his repeats and copying around were
  omitted, a clear word ordering preference
  appeared
• gt he constructed many sentences according to a
  basic, but private, plan

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• gt Both the chimp and the child show that an
  optional word order can become a preferred order
  which later becomes a certain rule.

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3. Human mind set

• Our human-mind set dictates how we see the world
  and create the language.
• Ontological categories, such as people,
  things, actions, events, provide a universal
  initial structure of the language of thought on
  which language is based.
• The innate thought structure also covers the way
  in which words may be combined.
• e.g. The cat sat on the mat. The dog lay under
  the table.
• not The mat lay under the cat. The table stood
  over the dog.
•  
• gt The location of small onto large may be due
  to the human mind-set. Human thoughts run along
  certain routes, which are likely to affect the
  order of participants in a grammar.

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Preferences and pre-linguistic rules

• animate first preference
• It is more normal to say Patsy was hit on the
  head by a ball than A ball hit Patsy on the
  head
•   gt The animate first preference is not due to
  any obvious linguistic factor, but the human
  mind-set plays an important role.
• The animate first preference is linked to an
  actor first principle, because in real life
  animates act on lifeless things more often than
  the other way round.
• The preferences are based on pre-linguistic
  mind-sets, which explain why so many languages
  show similarities.

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Summary

• Language began when words were combined.
• There are several theories on how grammar could
  have arisen
• -out of build-ups putting individual words
  together,
• -out of re-analyses of combined nouns.
• At first many word combinations were possibly
  repetitive and inconsistent.
• The examples of the chimp and the child Vincent
  show how rules may have became fixed optional
  orders became strong preferences which later
  became rules.
• The original preferences were probably on
  pre-linguistic mind-sets gt explains why so
  many languages show similarities

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The evolution of language

• The expansion of language
• Martina Kleinebreil

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First steps

• - Humans named themselves - parts of body- the
  immediate environment

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Inwards and OutwardsInwards and Outwards

• The human body, and the space surrounding it,
  presumably formed the basis of further meaning
  extensions.

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Outwards

• Humans body-parts move outwards to features of
  environment.e.g.Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea)

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• het headhet bilong diwai - top of a treehan
  handhan bilong diwai branch of a treehan
  bilong pik front legs of a pigOr even in
  English head of state

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Inwards

• Outer behaviour is a regular source for talk
  about the inner mental self.e.g. Physical sight
  expressionsI see what Helen means.Peter is
  still in the dark.

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Physical holding - mental grasping

• - Did you grasp what he meant?- Did you get
  this?- Paul hold on to his point of view.

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Adpositions (Pre- Postpositions)

• - a limited number of prepositions- re-apply of
  the old ones, instead of inventing new ones.

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• Tok Pisinmi go long taun I go to townmi kam
  long town I come from townmi stap long haus
  I stayed at homemi paitim dok long stik I
  hit the dog with a stick

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• Nouns durable dog, skyVerbs rapid change
  swim, go, hit properties hot day, green
  houseproperties are less time-stable than
  nouns, but more time-stable than most verbs

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1st possibility

• Subdivision into stative and non- stative
  verbsnon-stative kill, shootstative be-green,
  be-ill(Mandarin Chinese, Yoruba)

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2nd possibility

• adjectives as an extra category border-line
  between nouns/adj.and verbs/adj. seems
  arbitrarye.g. a gold watch ? noun a
  lasting peace ? verb

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• In the early days verbs and adjectives were
  probably indistinguishable.To reach a clear
  distinction later word- endings were added.

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• But a language is still not complete with just a
  few parts of speech, and various attachements for
  its verbs.

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• So from this point on its still a long way to
  todays language

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Diffusion

• Frauke Skrobaschewsky

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Moving outwards

• roughly 75.000 years ago humans moved out of
  Africa and into Asia
• first to Asia Minor
• then westwards to Europe
• eastwards to the Far East and Australia

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• the last continent to be populated was America
• crossed from northeastern Siberia into northwest
  Alaska
• went by boat via the Bering Strait
• smalls groups
• probably spoke dialects of the same language

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The hunt for Universals

• language universals features which occur in all
  languages
• any human can learn any language, so something
  must link all languages together
• a possible list of narrow absolute universals

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All languages

• 1) have consonants and vowels
• 2) combine sounds into larger units
• 3) have nouns ? words for people objects
• 4) have verbs ? words for actions
• 5) can combine words

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All languages

• 6) can say who did that to who
• 7) can negate utterances
• 8) can ask questions
• 9) involve structure-dependance
• 10) involve recursions

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• finding absolute linguistic universals is hard
  because they differ in details from language to
  language

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Constraints

• language must have constraints which prevent it
  from flying apart in different directions
• constraints are hard to find ? promising approach
  is the search for constraining links
• language constructions are often linked tp one
  another in implicational chains
• Noam Chomskys paramter setting
  ? best known implicational theory

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• Chomskys parameter setting
• children have an inbuilt knowledge of some basic
  language principles
• in addition they are instinctively aware of some
  key either/or options
• they need to find out which options their own
  language selects
• the extra information follows automatically

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The future

• there are about 6.000 languages spoken today
• in this century 90 of all languages will cease
  to exist
• 3.000 languages are moribund no longer learned
  as a first language by the new generation of
  speakers
• the few languages that will remain will spread
  across the world

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Sources

• Aitchison, John. The seeds of speech Language
  origin and evolution. Cambridge University Press,
  Cambridge 1996.
• http//www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/get-involved/world-map
  /world-map.gif