Why We Talk
The Evolutionary Origins of Language

 

by Jean-Louis Dessalles

translated by James Grieve

 

 

Foreword.............................................................................................................................. xi

 

Part I - The place of language in human evolutionary history

 

1        Animal communication and human communication........... 3

1.1       The biological status of language...................................................................... 3
1.2       Animal communication......................................................................................... 5
1.3       From signals to behaviour................................................................................... 8
1.4       Language as code.................................................................................................. 11
1.5       Communication of human primates.................................................................... 20
1.6       Use of language by humans................................................................................. 23
1.7       The originality of language................................................................................. 28

2        Culture, languages, and language.......................................... 30

2.1       Why are there many languages?......................................................................... 30
2.2       The myth of the mother language........................................................................ 34
2.3       Language and the palaeolithic revolution....................................................... 42
2.4       The equal complexity of languages.................................................................... 47

3        The biological roots of language............................................ 51

3.1       The organs of language........................................................................................ 51
3.2       Neuronal circuitry dedicated to language....................................................... 54
3.3       Language learning in animals............................................................................ 57
3.4       Does animal communication entail syntax?..................................................... 63
3.5       Language learning and universals..................................................................... 66
3.6       Linguistic abilities in neonates........................................................................... 68
3.7       The deaf children of Nicaragua.......................................................................... 70
3.8       Language is a compulsory activity..................................................................... 73
3.9       The faculty of language........................................................................................ 76

4        Misapprehensions about the origins of language................. 77

4.1       That language was a necessary outcome of evolution................................... 77
4.2       That evolution towards language was slow and gradual.............................. 80
4.3       That language was an outcome of intelligence............................................... 82
4.4       That in the beginning was the word................................................................... 86
4.5       That language is a vestige of past evolution.................................................... 88

5        Language as an evolutionary curiosity.................................. 92

5.1       Evolution's directionless advance...................................................................... 92
5.2       Nature appears to jump........................................................................................ 98
5.3       The role of macromutation in the emergence of language............................ 100
5.4       Could language be the outcome of a quite different ability?....................... 105
5.5       Dr Pangloss's explanation of language............................................................ 108

6        The local optimality of language............................................ 116

6.1       Between chance and necessity............................................................................. 116
6.2       The slow and the fast in evolutionary change.................................................. 118
6.3       Macroevolution and microevolution in the emergence of language........... 129
6.4       What's the point of communicating?.................................................................. 135

 

Part II - The functional anatomy of speech

 

7        Putting sounds together.......................................................... 139

7.1       The articulatory gestures of language............................................................... 139
7.2       Was language gestural before it became oral?............................................... 142
7.3       The atoms of language: gestures or phonemes?.............................................. 145
7.4       Phonological structuring of languages............................................................ 150
7.5       Mental structures underlying the assemblies of sounds................................. 153
7.6       The nature of the rules of language................................................................... 157
7.7       The biological function of phonological ability............................................. 160

8        Protolanguage.......................................................................... 165

8.1       Communicating just with words.......................................................................... 165
8.2       A language that is not learned............................................................................ 168
8.3       Protosemantics....................................................................................................... 173
8.4       Prelanguage, a language without sentences.................................................... 178
8.5       The lexicon of protolanguage............................................................................. 184
8.6       Protoconversations................................................................................................ 190

9        The mechanics of syntax......................................................... 194

9.1       The phenomenon of syntax................................................................................... 194
9.2       The importance of relations between words..................................................... 197
9.3       Some facts about syntax........................................................................................ 200

10      Syntax and meaning................................................................ 210

10.1     From protolanguage to language...................................................................... 210
10.2     Semantic recursion and syntactic recursion..................................................... 214
10.3     The principle of semantic linking....................................................................... 216
10.4     The autonomy of syntactic mechanisms............................................................. 220
10.5     Another form of syntax.......................................................................................... 222
10.6     The origin of syntax............................................................................................... 229

11      The structure of meanings...................................................... 232

11.1     Concepts, images, and definitions...................................................................... 233
11.2     Thematic segmentation......................................................................................... 238
11.3     Double meanings.................................................................................................... 246

12      The emergence of meaning..................................................... 251

12.1     The dissociation of the two forms of meaning.................................................. 251
12.2     A functional role for thematic segmentation.................................................... 256
12.3     The emergence of human meaning...................................................................... 262

 

Part III - The ethology of language

 

13      Conversation behaviour......................................................... 268

13.1     An apparently unimportant behaviour.............................................................. 268
13.2     Some attempts to explain speech events............................................................ 271

14      Language as information........................................................ 281

14.1     The constraint of relevance in conversation.................................................... 281
14.2     Relevance in the informative mode..................................................................... 283
14.3     Creatures responsive to information.................................................................. 289
14.4     The biological grounding of the informative mode........................................ 291
14.5     Instinctive sharing of information...................................................................... 292

15      The birth of argumentation.................................................... 294

15.1     Relevance in the argumentative mode............................................................... 294
15.2     The idea of cognitive conflict.............................................................................. 299
15.3     The recursive nature of argumentation............................................................. 301
15.4     The proximal function of language.................................................................... 307
15.5     The origin of conversational modes................................................................... 312

16      Language as an evolutionary paradox.................................. 315

16.1     The theory of social bonding............................................................................... 315
16.2     The altruistic character of language................................................................. 318
16.3     Language and cooperation.................................................................................. 321
16.4     Language and cheating........................................................................................ 324
16.5     The cost of communication................................................................................... 328
16.6     Three stages in the evolution of language........................................................ 332

17      The political origins of language............................................ 336

17.1     How speakers benefit by being relevant............................................................ 336
17.2     Prestige theory........................................................................................................ 341
17.3     The political role of language in hominids...................................................... 344
17.4     Language as showing off...................................................................................... 351
17.5     Homo loquens or Homo politicus........................................................................ 355
17.6     The other functions of language......................................................................... 357

18      Epilogue................................................................................... 360

18.1     A genesis in three stages....................................................................................... 360
18.2     A new view of language........................................................................................ 362
18.3     Future perspectives................................................................................................ 364

 

References............................................................................................................................ 367
Index   ................................................................................................................................... 000