Constraints and preadaptations in the earliest stages of language evolution

Bibliographic Data

ID20344328
AuthorsDorothy L Cheney (0000-0002-5183-000X), Noah Snyder‐mackler (0000-0003-3026-6160), Robert M Seyfarth
Year2005
Volume22
Issue2-4
Publication date2005-01-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Linguistic Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0167-6318 • E-ISSN: 1613-3676
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/tlir.2005.22.2-4.135
OpenAlexW1999838047
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited16

If we accept the view that language first evolved from the conceptual structure of our pre-linguistic ancestors, several questions arise, including: What kind of structure? Concepts about what? Here we review research on the vocal communication and cognition of nonhuman primates, focusing on results that may be relevant to the earliest stages of language evolution. From these data we conclude, first, that nonhuman primates’ inability to represent the mental states of others makes their communication fundamentally different from human language. Second, while nonhuman primates’ production of vocalizations is highly constrained, their ability to extract complex information from sounds is not. Upon hearing vocalizations, listeners acquire information about their social companions that is referential, discretely coded, hierarchically structured, rule-governed, and propositional. We therefore suggest that, in the earliest stages of language evolution, communication had a formal structure that grew out of its speakers’ knowledge of social relations

Cognition · Cognitive science · Human language · Language evolution · Language structure · Linguistics · Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior · Computer Science · Language and cultural evolution · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Philosophy · Psychology