How Language Began
Page 38
occlusive modes 180, 189
oesophageal sphincter 191
oestrus, hidden 38
‘OK’ sign 234–5
Olduvai Gorge 5, 36–7, 54, 57*, 96
Olduwan toolkit 37, 54–5, 55, 62, 96–8, 97
onomatopoeia 17, 87
orang-utans 6, 19, 24, 37–8, 55
organs
absence of language specific 88, 139, 152
function attribution as cultural 156
origin of life 19, 21
origins of language
ban on speculative papers 7
as both biological and cultural 9
importance of conversation 5
innateness claims 83, 130, 136, 139, 141, 160–1, 243, 248
mono- and polygenesis 271
overall argument summarised xvii
sign progression theory 6–7, 33 65
single genetic mutation proposal 6, 45, 68, 70–1
sudden emergence theory 71
three hypotheses 77–80
origins of modern humans 6, 35, 46–7
Orrorin spp. 114, 126
O. tugenensis 41, 42
otters 55
overinterpretation, animal communication 44
P
Pabbi Hills, Pakistan 63
pair-bonding 39, 56
Paley, William, Natural Theology 20
panspermia 21–2
paradigmatic organisation 203–4, 206
parallel processing 117–18, 126
Paranthropus spp. 37, 54
Parker, Quanah 278
Parkinson’s disease 193
Pauling, Linus 28, 47
Pavlov’s dogs (Ivan Pavlov) 151, 291
Peirce, Charles Sanders
breadth of interests 16
and the G3 language type 224
importance of the interpretant 88, 93, 202
‘infinite semiosis’ 104
theories of sign progression 16–18, 65, 84, 90
penis size 131
Pepperberg, Irene 83, 106*
perception, co-evolution in 176–7, 183, 186, 208, 214
perlocutionary acts/effects 232, 257–8
Perruchet, Pierre 153
personal ornaments 102
perspiration 38, 39*, 41
persuasion, use of 258
pharyngeal sounds 181
phatic language 169, 264, 274
phenotypes
culture effects on 125–6
as shared 276, 280–1
as target of natural selection 27–8, 30
phonation 176, 184, 192–3
phoneme groupings 87, 190, 203, 205–6, 212
phonemes, language specific 181, 203
phonetics
acoustic phonetics 176, 183
articulatory phonetics 176, 182–3
auditory phonetics 176, 186
as a branch of linguistics 15, 105
distinguished from phonology 209
The International Phonetic Alphabet 179
three subfields of 176
phonology
as a branch of linguistics 15, 105
distinguished from phonetics 209
hierarchy of units 210–11
memory–expression tensions 207
and SLI 161
and Universal Grammar 205*
phrases, as a form of chunking 78, 200, 210
phrenology 154, 158
phylogenetic trees 18–19, 19, 24, 41–2, 42
physiology, human, adaptation for speech 191
Pierpont, Elizabeth I. 161–2
Pike, Kenneth 213, 231, 235, 242, 249, 284
‘etic’ and ‘emic’ knowledge 202
Pinker, Steven 162
Pirahã people and language
beliefs 287
concept of fatherhood 276
conversational analysis 264–5
dependence on word order 221–2
facial features and body shape 280–1
Fitch’s experiment with 153
as a G2 languages 222
grooming behaviour 169
indications of truthfulness 252–3
lacking hierarchical grammar 105
male and female speech 87
simulfixes in 216
social structures 286–7
sound symbolism and 87–8
as a tone language 117, 184
unique sounds in 183–4
whether structured 245
word order 247
Pirro Nord, Italy 63
pitch
as a highlighter 233
production by the larynx 176
variations 197–9
see also intonation
planning 32–3, 49, 56, 59, 64, 75, 92, 96
Plato 242
Pleistocene evolution 52–4
Plesiadapis tricuspidens 23
Plio-Pleistocene Tethys 57
politeness 258–9
population bottlenecks 29, 34, 80
population genetics 34–5
Portuguese 1, 3, 66, 85, 215–16
Post, Emile 218
posterior association cortex 115
pragmatics, as a branch of linguistics 15, 105, 256, 260
pragmatism, as a branch of philosophy 16
prefrontal cortex 82, 96
primates
communication among the great apes 42
and the fossil record 41
origins 23–4, 41
sexual dimorphism 38–9
primate research
Louis Leakey and 37
phonation 193
Principles of Geology, by Charles Lyell 70
procedural deficit hypothesis 162
procedural memory 155, 162
procedural motor skills 135, 162
prognathism 40, 52, 117
prosody 213
Proto-Indo-European language 270
protolanguages 61–3, 165*, 224–5
Q
quality, maxim of 252–4
quantity, maxim of 252–4
questions, recognising 199, 201
queueing 290
‘quiet breathing’ 193
Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintlianus) 233
R
Ramón y Cajal, Santiago 134, 142
random inheritance of alleles 27, 29
rattlesnake incident xiv, 8
receptive aphasia 164
Reck, Hans 36–7
recursion
absence from SAE languages 222–3
and centre-embedding 223
in complex sentences 33, 82, 227*
in G3 languages 17, 106*, 224, 292
in human cognition 104
language as recursive grammar 68, 224
possible acquisition 31, 33, 215, 227
recursive hierarchical grammars 218
relative clauses 215
relevance, maxim of 252, 254
relevance theory 260, 262
representative acts 257–8
reproductive peculiarities, Homo sapiens 114
reptilian brain 135, 193
respiratory tract, speech production 175
Rey, Arnaud 153
Riau language 105, 151*, 221–2
right hemisphere 115–16, 139, 143–4
ritualised lamentation 101
Riwat, Pakistan 57*, 63
Role and reference grammar theory 198*
Romance languages 215–16
S
Sabatão, of the Banawá people 1–4
SAE (Standard Average European) languages 222–3
Safina, Carl 225
‘Sahara pump’ 52
Sahelanthropus spp. 114–15
S. tchadensis 41–2, 42, 111
Sahin, Ned 137
saltation 70–1, 148, 228
Sapir, Edward 197, 227, 234, 269
‘satisficing’ principle 98, 249, 260
Saussure, Ferdinand de 203
scarecrow, Wizard of Oz 111
schizophreni
a 193
Schleicher, August 270–1
Schoenemann, Tom 126
Schöningen spears 92–4, 93
Schützenberger, Marcel 218
science
emerging from culture 23
importance of doubt 14
seafaring skills, Homo erectus 59–60, 118
Searle, John 226, 256, 262
‘segregation’ principle 26
semantic memory 156
semantics, as a branch of linguistics 15, 105
semiotic progression 17, 77, 84, 86, 243
semiotics
defined 16, 65
‘infinite semiosis’ 104
senses, perception as inborn 124
sensory aphasia 164
sensory memory 154
sentences
complex sentences as unnecessary 31
constituent structures 78, 79, 219, 220, 246
shared and new knowledge 201
stories using non-complex sentences 32
see also syntax
sex differences
in brain sizes 132
in speech 86
sexual dimorphism 38–9, 56
sexual partners, access to 39, 41, 56
sexual positions 288
sexual segregation 3
sexual selection
and body hair 41
for communication skills 106
for complex sentences 31–2
for a grammar mutation 80
physical attributes and intelligence 131–2
‘Shamalamadingdong!’ example exclamation 212, 239–40
Shannon, Claude 261, 263
shared knowledge, signalling 201, 288
Shaw, George Bernard 172
Shea, John 118
shell-carvings 86, 94–5, 95
short-term memory/working memory 154–6, 200, 206, 211, 219, 246
sign languages
bodily movements involved 234–6
and cognitive structures 89, 190–1, 194
communities lacking other languages 243
could not precede spoken languages 236
and language innateness 248
learned by animals 105*
as manual-visual communication 189–91, 214–15*
and phonology 214–15*
procedural memory in 155
as stabilised gestures 241–3
as syllabic 191
sign progression theory 6–7, 33, 65, 83
see also semiotic progression
Silverstein, Michael 87, 104
Simon, Herbert 81, 105, 249, 260
Simpler Syntax, by Ray Jackendoff and Peter Culicover 151*
simulfixes 216
skeleton, evolution 37–8
skull shape
endocasts 115, 130, 158
foramen magnum 38, 158
ridges 38, 40
SLI (specific language impairment) 121, 160–3
slots, in grammars 203–5, 244, 285
gesture-slotted speech 242
language-slotted gestures 235, 241–2
smell, sense of 38, 39
snakes and tree roots 90, 100, 103, 291
social difficulties and ASD 165–7
social group identification 210
social roles 16, 50, 57, 87, 101–2, 275, 283, 285
status markers 87, 102–4, 149
sociolinguistics 227*, 260
Socotra, Indonesia 59–60
‘solution space’ 200
sonority 205–6, 209, 210
sound-based memories 155
sound symbolism 87–8
sounds
changed by syllable structure 208–9
ejective and implosive 178
ingressive and egressive 177, 180
number of sounds and languages 189
speech sound technical labels 188–9
voiced and voiceless 189, 208–9
specialisation of tasks 62, 113, 286
speech
achievable communication speeds 190
airflow noise and 183–4
as an invention 176
and brain size 194
breathing control 193
filtering of meaning 61
highlighting in 7, 199, 203, 212–13, 229, 232–3, 235–40
of Homo erectus 116–17, 173
The International Phonetic Alphabet 179
language as preceding 173–4, 207
‘talking like who you talk with’ 273, 280–2
speech acts 240, 256, 257–8, 260, 265
speech production
as assimilative, not digital 208
co-evolution with perception 176–7, 183, 186, 208
complexity of 174–5
and dentition 41
see also vocal apparatus
Sperber, Dan 260, 262
status markers 87, 102–4, 149
Stegodontidae 58–60
stereotyped behaviour 167
stone tools as partial evidence 118
Stoneking, Mark 46
stories
and tacit knowledge 287–8
using non-complex sentences 32
‘strength’ as an example word 190, 206–7
strokes 139, 163
structured knowledge and culture 15–16, 279
styloid process 38
Subject-Object-Verb order 220, 247
Subject-Verb-Object order 219, 247
Sunda Shelf/islands/subduction zone 57*, 58, 94
supervowels 192
supralaryngeal vocal tract (SVT) 191
Swadesh, Morris 272
sweating 38, 39*, 41
syllabic groupings
and duality of patterning 205
as hierarchical 209
in modern speech 190
sign languages 89
syllables
Homo erectus and 206
loudness variations 205–6, 210
sign languages as syllabic 191
symbols
in binary arithmetic 188
following indexes and icons 7, 65, 90, 103
importance of the interpretant 18
and intentionality 103
and language origins 77–9, 291
necessarily preceding grammar 83
in sign progression theory 7, 17, 65, 83, 86
sound symbolism 87–8
status markers 87, 102–4, 149
tools as 73, 92
use by Homo erectus 60, 62, 106, 225
synaptic plasticity 122
syntagmatic organisation 203–6, 204
syntax
apparent use by animals 105
as a branch of linguistics 15
complexity as unnecessary 31, 73–4, 118–19, 221
and the Merge theory 150–1
morphosyntactic hierarchy 213, 214
and SLI 161
‘syntax mutation’ example 31–3
T
tacit knowledge
derived from culture 290
in formant perception 186
in interpretation 275
in the manufacture of language 236
see also dark matter
Tager-Flusberg, Helen 168
‘talking like who you talk with’ principle 273, 280–2
Tattersall, Ian 71, 97
teeth
erectus canines 56
parabolic dental arcade 38, 41
Teilhardina (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin) 24
temperature control 38, 39*, 41
Tethys geotectonic corridor 57*
theory of culture 273
theory of mind 43, 46, 168
thermal regulation
and sweating 38, 39*, 41
and upright posture 41
thought
brain regions and 115
expression of 74
whether language is involved 76, 85*
tone languages 184
tongue 82, 89, 173–4, 180
tool use
as
cultural 287
Homo erectus 54, 96–7, 118
Homo floresiensis 129
and intentionality 93–4, 103
and language evolution 73, 95–9, 118
by other animal species 54–5
other than stone tools 118
toolkits
Acheulean 37, 56, 58. 95, 97–8, 99
Levallois 56, 98, 100
Mousterian 62
Olduwan 37, 54–5, 55, 62, 96–8, 97
tools
Schöningen spears 92–4, 93
as symbols 73, 92
topic and comment structure 246, 248
Torá people 280
transcription factors 139–40
Treaty of Medicine Lodge 274–5, 277–8, 286
tree diagrams
language evolution 270
sentences 79, 79–80
triality of patterning 239
Turgeon, Yves 160
Turing, Alan 261, 287
Turkana people, Kenya 239
Turkish language 216, 221
Tzeltal language, Mexico 178
U
Ubeidya site, Israel 63
Ullman, Michael T. 161–2
underdeterminacy
natural conversation 3–4
newspaper articles 251
pragmatic resolution 66, 256
uniformitarianism 70–1, 73, 89
universal grammar idea 6, 202, 205*
upright posture and walking 37–41, 52
Urban, Greg 101
V
vagueness see ambiguity
values, as defining a culture 68, 251, 282–4
van der Lely, Heather 162
Van Veen, Stuyvesant 233
Venus of Berekhat Ram 86, 99–100, 101
verb forms, English 215, 247
Verb-Subject-Object order 219, 247
Verhoeven, Theodor 58
vision
hominins dependence on 38–9
as unlike language 141
visual cortex 115, 138
vocal apparatus 89–90, 134, 173, 193, 207, 214
vocal cords 178, 183–4, 189, 192–3, 208
vocalisation
and breathing in animals and infants 191, 193
and eating in animals and infants 181
voicing 189, 208–9
Voltaire 249
vowel spectrograms 185, 185–6
vowels
back vowels 174, 182
California vowels 181, 182
cardinal or quantal vowels 208
creaky voice 178
dentition and 41
Homo erectus speech 116–17
in the IPA 179, 179–82
lax and tense 181
minimum requirement 89–90, 187
modern humans 192–3
non-concatenative systems 216
phoneme patterns 190
production 208–9
sonority 205
W
Wallace, Alfred 157
Wari’ language and culture 151*, 287
‘watchmaker’ analogy 19–21
Wernicke’s aphasia 164
Wernicke’s area 134, 139, 164
white matter 122, 132, 140, 143, 158
Wilson, Allan 46
Wilson, Deirdre 260, 262
Wittenburg, Eva 151*
Wolfe, Tom 9, 172
word order 199–200, 219–21, 247–8
words