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Evolution of Language

Language and Communication


Week 7
Mike Dowman

How does Language Change over


Time?
produce

L1

U1

learn

L2

U2

L3

U3

L4
U4

L8

U7

L7

U6

L6

U5

L5

Each generation learns a slightly different


language

Cultural Evolution
Many factors affect how language will
change from generation to generation.
What people talk about.
Who talks to who how often.
What psychological learning mechanism
people have.
Ideas about what sounds good, or who
people want to sound like.

Biological Evolution
L1

L2

L3

U3

L4
U4

L8

U7

L7

U6

L6

U5

Biological evolution changes the type of


languages that will evolve culturally.

L5

Natural Selection
Biological evolution follows quite different
rules to cultural evolution.
It will occur whenever we have:
Multiplication
Variation
Heredity
Those genes that result in people
reproducing will be selected for.

Successful Reproduction
Survival
Sexual success
For almost all of our evolutionary history
weve been hunter-gatherers.
How does language help hunter
gatherers?
Does language ability affect social status?
Does language play a role in courtship?

Does Language Evolution Matter?


Language evolution isnt important if were
just interested in the way language is
today.
Evolution isnt important for understanding
the structure and functioning of animals
and plants.
The evolutionary perspective helps us to
understand all aspects of language.

Evolution of all Life

Primate Evolution
Monkeys

Gorillas

Chimpanzees

Bonobos

Homo Sapiens

Wrong!

We are not descended from


Chimpanzees

Australopithecus africanus

Australopithecus robustus

Australopithecus afarensis
Homo habilis
Homo erectus
Archaic Homo sapiens
gorillas

common chimpanzees

bonobos

Neanderthal

Homo sapiens sapiens

When did Language Evolve?

Australopithecus africanus

Australopithecus robustus

Australopithecus afarensis
Homo habilis
Homo erectus
Archaic Homo sapiens
gorillas

common chimpanzees

bonobos

Neanderthal

Homo sapiens sapiens

When did Language Evolve?

Australopithecus africanus

Australopithecus robustus

Australopithecus afarensis
Homo habilis
Homo erectus
Archaic Homo sapiens
gorillas

common chimpanzees

bonobos

Neanderthal

Homo sapiens sapiens

When did Language Evolve?

Australopithecus africanus

Australopithecus robustus

Australopithecus afarensis
Homo habilis
Homo erectus
Archaic Homo sapiens
gorillas

common chimpanzees

bonobos

Neanderthal

Homo sapiens sapiens

When did Language Evolve?

Australopithecus africanus

Australopithecus robustus

Australopithecus afarensis
Homo habilis
Homo erectus
Archaic Homo sapiens
gorillas

common chimpanzees

bonobos

Neanderthal

Homo sapiens sapiens

When did Language Evolve?

Australopithecus africanus

Australopithecus robustus

Australopithecus afarensis
Homo habilis
Homo erectus
Archaic Homo sapiens
gorillas

common chimpanzees

bonobos

Neanderthal

Homo sapiens sapiens

How long has language been


evolving for?
chimp-human
common ancestor

5 million years ago

Australopithecus afarensis
Homo habilis
Homo erectus

gorillas

common chimpanzees

bonobos

Homo sapiens sapiens

What has evolved?


Chimpanzees give clues to how we were 5
million years ago.
How does modern chimpanzee language
compare to human language?
Do chimpanzees have all the cognitive
prerequisites for language? (Even if they
could speak, would they have anything to
say?)

Wild Chimpanzees
Communicate through gestures, facial
expressions, tactile contact, and about 25
different vocal calls.
Calls can express fear, puzzlement,
annoyance, food enjoyment, rage or
distress, excitement
Can alert other chimps to a food source
But much more like other animal
communication systems than human
languages

Teaching Language to
Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees cant control their breathing or
vocal apparatus
So cant mimic human speech
Good manual control
So several attempts to teach chimpanzees
American sign language (ASL)
Or to communicate by pointing to a board
of board of symbols

What can Chimps Learn?


Chimp trainers have claimed:
Chimps can learn 250 ASL words
Spontaneously make new lexical items
Combine words into sentences
Other observers see a lot of random hand
movements, and only very poor imitation
of ASL signs

Nim Chimpsky
Nim eat Nim eat
Tickle me Nim play
Me banana you banana me you give
Banana me me me eat
No or very little syntax
Up to about 250 words maximum (using a
symbol board)
No turn taking or conversational rules
Almost always talk about immediate wants

Tracing Human Evolution


Problem:
Language doesnt fossilize
No writing until 5,000 years ago
So how can we track language evolution?
Skulls and skeletons
Crafted artefacts
Societal organization
Art

Worldwide Spread of Humans

Catastrophic Evolution
Theres nothing remotely like human
language anywhere in the animal world.
Suggests that there never was anything
halfway between chimp and human
language
A single mutation caused a crucial
connection to be made in the brain

Gradual Evolution
Ugh

Food

We hunt

Many buffalo
there

Ugh-Ugh
Dont attack
until I say
Lets spend the
winter here. Its more
sheltered and there
are many animals to
hunt
Because out language
skills got better we
survived better. But it all
happened slowly and
gradually.

Lets take the kill


back to the others

I have seen herds of


antelope over the hill.
I think we should
move there.

What is Language for?


Language helps us to pass on and develop
technologies (how to make better spears).
It helps us to coordinate activities (e.g. hunting).
We can communicate knowledge about relevant
aspects of the environment (e.g. theres a big
herd of buffalo behind the hill where we camped
5 days ago).

Could we achieve any of this without language?


Could we even think this without language?

Gossiping
2/3 of all conversation is about social
relations.
Both in developed countries and for
hunter-gatherers.
Does this kind of language use have any
effect on our fitness?
Does it help our survival rate?
Does it increase our reproductive
success?

Language
Evolved as a
Substitute for
Grooming
Monkeys and Apes
are very social
Complex
relationships
Grooming is main
form of social
interaction

Increasing Group Size


Largest group size for non-human
primates is 50-55 (Chimps and Baboons).
For modern hunter-gatherers is about 150.
Primates spend up to 20% of their days
grooming.
Humans would need to spend 40% of
their time to cover such a large group.
Language is vocal grooming

Co-Evolution
L1

L2

L3

U3

L4
U4

L8

U7

L7

U6

L6

U5

L5

Language will adapt to humans through


cultural evolution
As soon as we acquire a tendency to
mimic some form of language will appear

Has Language Evolution Stopped?


Is there genetic variation in language
ability between different people?
Are mutations still occurring?
If either of these are true, language is still
evolving.

The K.E. Family


16 of 30 members of K.E. family have a specific
language impairment.
Problems with morphology (have to learn past
tense and plurals one by one cant learn rule of
adding ed / -s).
Some other aspects of grammar not so affected.
Mean IQ of impaired subjects 86 (range 71-111).
Mean IQ of unaffected family members 104
(range 84 119).

K.E. Family Tree


F (74) husband

F (46) husband

F (17)
M (16)
F (12)
M (8)

M wife

M (20)
F (18)

F (43) husband

F (21)
F (17)
F (12)
F (11)
M (7)

Red family members have impairment


Black members have no impairment at all
No spouses had language impairment

M (40) wife

M (10)
F (7)
F (5)
F (2)?

F (38) - husband

M (17)
M (15)
M (14)
F (12)
M (10)
M (8)
F (7)
M (6)
fraternal twins
F (6)

FOXP2
In 2001a gene was found in all affected
family members
No non-affected family members had this
gene
Nor did any of 360 controls from the
general population
FOXP2 controls the expression of other
genes
Affects brain development (at embryo stage)

Evolution of FOXP2

75 Million
years ago

Grey boxes mark amino acid changing mutations


0 mutations in 75 million years for chimps
1 for mice
2 for humans in last 6 million years

FOXP2 Mutations
FOXP2 mutations have been selected for
in humans (are not due to random drift).
Mutation probably happened 10,000 to
100,000 years ago.
KE family mutation is different in a
completely different part of the gene.
But may still give us some idea what the
mutations were for.

Implications of FOXP2
Does FOXP2 really tell us anything about
language evolution?
Does FOXP2 code for morphology?
Or does the mutation of FOXP2 disrupt
whatever codes for morphology?
Does FOXP2 suggest that something really
language-specific evolved?

The Future of the KE Family Gene


Will the KE family gene die out?
Or will it keep spreading?
If it spreads widely enough, a version of
language without morphological rules
might arise.
We could be seeing the beginnings of a new
stage in the evolution of language.

Summary
Language evolution raises a lot of questions:
What evolved?
When did it evolve?
Why did it evolve?
Key point All explanations in linguistics
must ultimately be grounded in terms of
biological evolution by natural selection.

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