Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Natural History of Human Language: Bridging the Gaps without Magic

  • Chapter
Emergence of Communication and Language

Abstract

Human languages are quintessentially historical phenomena. Every known aspect of linguistic form and content is subject to change in historical time (Lehmann, 1995; Bybee, 2004). Many facts of language, syntactic no less than semantic, find their explanation in the historical processes that generated them. If adpositions were once verbs, then the fact that they tend to occur on the same side of their arguments as do verbs (“cross-category harmony”: Hawkins, 1983) is a matter of historical contingency rather than a reflection of inherent structural constraints on human language (Delancey, 1993).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The claim that song is without meaning does not imply that it is without purpose, nor that song characteristics do not convey information. Factors such as proficiency and complexity serve to impress, and different exemplars of song are bound to vary in the extent to which they do so, and thus they do carry information in this sense. But that is something altogether different from the way in which sentence structure is linked to propositional meaning in human language, a feature entirely absent from animal song.

References

  • Alexander, R. D. (1990). How Did Humans Evolve? Reflections on the Uniquely Unique Species. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Special Publication, 1, 1–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Batali, J. (1998). Computational simulations of the emergence of grammar. In J. R. Hurford, M. Studdert-Kennedy and C. Knight (Eds.), Approaches to the evolution of language: Social and cognitive bases, pp. 405–426. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Batali, J. (2002). The negotiation and acquisition of recursive grammars as a result of competition among exemplars. In T. Briscoe (Ed.), Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models, pp. 111–172. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Baylis, J. R. (1982). Avian vocal mimicry: Its function and evolution. In D.E. Kroodsma and E.H. Miller (Eds.), Acoustic communication in birds, pp. 51–83. Academic Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bybee, Joan (2004). Mechanisms of change as universals of language. Article to appear in Spanish, English version available for download at http://www.unm.edu/∼jbybee/

  • Catchpole, C. K. (1976). Temporal and sequential organization of song in the sedge warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus). Behaviour, 59, 226–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, N. (1980). Rules and representations. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, C. W. and Clapham, P. J. (2004). Acoustic monitoring on a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) feeding ground shows continual singing into late spring. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 271, 1051–1057.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. (1871). The descent of man and selection in relation to sex. D. Appleton & Company, New York.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • DeGusta, D., Gilbert, W. H. and Turner, S. P. (1999). Hypoglossal canal size and hominid speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 96, 1800–1804.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeLancey, Scott (1993). Grammaticalization and Linguistic Theory. In J. Gomez de Garcia and D. Rood (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1993 Mid-America Linguistics Conference, pp. 1–22. Department of Linguistics, University of Colorado.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dessalles, J. -L. (1998). Altruism, status, and the origin of relevance. In J. R. Hurford, M. Studdert-Kennedy and C. Knight (Eds.), Approaches to the evolution of language. Social and cognitive bases, pp. 130–148. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Devoogd, T. J., Krebs, J. R., Healy, S. D. and Purvis, A. (1993). Relations between song repertoire size and the volume of brain nuclei related to song: comparative evolutionary analysis amongst oscine birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, B254, 75–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Devoogd, T. J. 2004. Where is the bird? In H. P. Ziegler and P. Marler (Eds.), The Behavioral Neurobiology of Birdsong, pp. 778–786. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doupé, A. J. and Kuhl, P. K. (1999). Birdsong and human speech: Common themes and mechanisms. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 22, 567–631.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enquist, M., Arak, A., Ghirlanda, S. and Wachtmeister, C. -A. (2002). Spectacular phenomena and limits to rationality in genetic and cultural evolution. Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B357, 1585–1594.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emery, N. J. and Clayton, N.S. (2005). Evolution of the avian brain and intelligence. Current Biology, 15, R946–950.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farabaugh, S. M. (1982). The ecological and social significance of duetting. In D. E. Kroodsma, E. H. Miller and H. Ouellet (Eds.), Acoustic communication in birds, pp. 84–124. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finlay, B. L. and Darlington, R. B. (1995). Linked regularities in the development and evolution of mammalian brains. Science, 268, 1578–1584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitch, W. T. (2000). The evolution of speech: a comparative review. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 258–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitch, W. T. (2006). The biology and evolution of music: A comparative perspective. Cognition, 100, 173–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeberg, T. M. (2000). Culture and courtship in vertebrates: a review of social learning and transmission of courtship systems and mating patterns. Behavioural Processes, 51, 177–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geary, D. C. (2000). Evolution and proximate expression of human paternal investment. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 55–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geary, D. C. and Flinn, M. V. (2001). Evolution of Human Parental Behavior and the Human Family. Parenting: Science and Practice, 1, 5–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geissmann, T. (2000). Gibbon song and human music from an evolutionary perspective. In NL Wallin, B Merker and S Brown, eds. The origins of music, pp. 103–123. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, M. H., King, A. P. and West, M. J. (2003). Social interaction shapes babbling: testing parallels between birdsong and speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 100, 8050–8055.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haimoff, E. H. (1986). Convergence in the duetting of monogamous Old World primates. Journal of Human Evolution, 15, 51–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hasselquist, D., Bensch, S. and von Schantz, T. (1996). Correlation between song repertoire, extra-pair paternity and offspring survival in the great reed warbler. Naure, 381, 229–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins, J. A. (1983). Word order universals. Academic Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, K. J. and Hayes, C. H. (1951). The intellectual development of a home-raised chimpanzee. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 95, 105–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Humboldt, W. von (1836/1988). On language: The diversity of human language structure and its influence on the mental development of mankind. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurford, J. R. (2000). The emergence of syntax. Editorial introduction to the section on syntax in C. Knight, M. Studdert-Kennedy and J. Hurford (Eds.), The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social function and the origins of linguistic form, pp. 219–230. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hurford, J. (2002) Expression/induction models of language evolution: dimensions and issues. In T. Briscoe (Ed.), Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iwaniuk, A. N., Dean, K. M. and Nelson J. E. (2005). Interspecific Allometry of the Brain and Brain Regions in Parrots (Psittaciformes): Comparisons with Other Birds and Primates. Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 65, 40–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janik, V. M. and Slater, P. J. B. (1997). Vocal learning in mammals. Advances in the Study of Behavior, 26, 59–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jarvis, E. D. (2004). Learned birdsong and the neurobiology of human language. In H.P. Ziegler and P. Marler (Eds.), Behavioral Neurobiology of Birdsong, pp. 749–777. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jespersen, O. (1922). Language, its nature, development and origin. London: Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, F. and Whitney, O. (2005). Singing-driven gene expression in the developing songbird brain. Physiology and Behavior, 86, 390–398.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jungers, W. L., Pokempner, A. A., Kay, R. F. and Cartmill, M. (2003). Hypoglossal Canal Size in Living Hominoids and the Evolution of Human Speech. Human Biology, 75, 473–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kay, R. F., Cartmill, M. and Balow, M. (1998). The hypoglossal canal and the origin of human vocal behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 95, 5417–5419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kellogg, W. N. and Kellogg, L. A. (1933). The Ape and the Child. New York: McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, A. P. and West, M. J. (2002). The ontogeny of competence. In D.J. Lewkcowicz and R. Lickliter (Eds.), Conceptions of Development, pp. 77–104. Psychology Press. Philadelphia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirby, S. (1998). Language evolution without natural selection: From vocabulary to syntax in a population of learners. Technical Report, Edinburgh Occasional Papers in Linguistics, 98–1, Department of Linguistics, University of Edinburgh.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirby, S. (2000). Syntax without Natural Selection: How compositionality emerges from vocabulary in a population of learners. In C. Knight, M. Studdert-Kennedy and J. Hurford (Eds.), The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Social function and the origins of linguistic form, pp. 303–323. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kirby, S. (2001). Spontaneous evolution of linguistic structure: an iterated learning model of the emergence of regularity and irregularity. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 5, 102–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirby, S. (2002) Learning, bottlenecks and the evolution of recursive syntax. In T. Briscoe (Ed.), Linguistic Evolution through Language Acquisition: Formal and Computational Models, pp 173–204. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Knight, C. (1998). Ritual/speech coevolution: a solution tio the problem of deception. In J. R. Hurford, M. Studdert-Kennedy and C. Knight (Eds.), Approaches to the evolution of language: Social and cognitive bases, pp. 68–91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kroodsma, D. E. and Parker, L. D. (1977). Vocal virtuosity in the brown thrasher. Auk, 94, 783–785.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lehmann, C. (1995). Thoughts on Grammaticalization. Second, revised edition. München: LINCOM Europa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieberman, P. (1975). On the Origins of Language: An Introduction to the Evolution of Human Speech. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Locke, J. L. and Bogin, B. (in press). Language and life history: A new perspective on the development and evolution of human language. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, forthcoming.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald, K. (1997). Life history theory and human reproductive behavior: Environmental/contextual influences and heritable variation. Human Nature, 8, 327–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacLarnon, A. and Hewitt, G. (1999). The evolution of human speech: The role of enhanced breathing control. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 109, 341–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marler, P. (1970). Bird song and speech development: could there be parallels? American Scientist, 58, 669–673.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marler, P. (2000). Origins of music and speech: Insights from animals. In N. L. Wallin, B. Merker & S. Brown (Eds.), The origins of music, (pp. 31–48). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marler, P. (2004). Bird calls: Their potential for behavioral biology. In HP Ziegler and P Marler, eds. The behavioral neurobiology of birdsong, pp. 31–44. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marler, P., Evans, C. S., and Hauser, M. D. (1992). Animal signals. Reference, motivation or both? In H. Papousek, U. Jürgens, and M. Papousek (Eds.) Nonverbal vocal communication: Comparative and developmental approaches (pp. 66–86). Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merker, B. (2000). Synchronous chorusing and human origins. In N. L. Wallin, B. Merker and S. Brown (Eds.), The origins of music, pp. 315–327. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merker, B. (2004). Cortex, countercurrent context, and dimensional integration of lifetime memory. Cortex, 40, 559–576.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merker, B. (2005). The conformal motive in birdsong, music and language. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1060, 17–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, G. F. (1997). Protean primates: The evolution of adaptive unpredictability in competition and courtship. In A. Whiten and R. W. Byrne (Eds.), Machiavellian Intelligence II, pp. 312–340. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, G. F. (2000). The mating mind: how sexual choice shaped the evolution of human nature. New York: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nottebohm, F. (1975). A zoologist’s view of some language phenomena, with particular emphasis on vocal learning. In E. H. Lenneberg, & E. Lenneberg (Eds.), Foundations of language development, pp. 61–103. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nottebohm F (1976). Discussion paper. Vocal tract and brain: A search for evolutionary bottlenecks. In S.R. Harnad, H.D. Steklis and J. Lancaster (Eds.), Origins and evolution of language and speech, pp. 643–649. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 280.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowicki, S., Searcy, W. A. and Peters, S. (2002). Brain development, song learning and mate choice in birds: a review and experimental test of the “nutritional stress hypothesis”. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 188, 1003–1004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Okanoya, K. (2002). Sexual Display as a Syntactic Vehicle: The Evolution of Syntax in Birdsong and Human Language through Sexual Selection. In A. Wray (Ed.), The transition to language, pp. 44–64. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Payne, K. (2000). The progressively changing songs of humpback whales: A window on the creative process in a wild animal. In N.L. Wallin, B. Merker, & S. Brown (Eds.), The Origins of Music, pp. 135–150. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinker, S. and Bloom, P. (1990). Natural Language and Natural Selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13, 707–784.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richman, B. (2000). How music fixed “nonsense” into significant formulas: On rhythm, repetition, and meaning. In N. L. Wallin, B. Merker and S. Brown (Eds.), The origins of music, pp. 301–314. Cambridge, Mass.: The Mit Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seyfarth R. M. and Cheney D. L. (1980). The ontogeny of vervet monkey alarm-calling behavior: A preliminary report. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie, 54, 37–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snowdon, C. T. and Elowson, A. M. (1992). Ontogeny of primate vocal communication. In Topics in Primatology, Vol. 1, Human Origins. T. Nishida, F.B. M. de Waal, W. McGrew, P. Marler and M. Pickford (Eds.), pp. 279–290. Tokyo University Press. Tokyo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soma, M., Hasegawa, T. and Okanoya, K. (2005). The evolution of song learning: A review from a biological perspective. Cognitive Studies, 12, 166–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, K. (2003). Learning biases and language evolution. In S. Kirby (Ed.) Language Evolution and Computation (pp. 22–31). Proceedings of the Workshop on Language Evolution and Computation, 15th European Summer School on Logic, Language and Information, Vienna.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sundberg, J. (1987). The Science of the Singing Voice. Dekalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swanson, L. W. (1995). Mapping the human brain: past, present, and future. Trends in Neurosciences, 18, 471–474.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thorpe, W. H. (1961). Bird-Song. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wachtmeister, C. -A. (2001). Display in monogamous pairs: A review of empirical data and evolutionary explanations. Animal Behavior, 61, 861–868.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, H. (2004). Birdsong and singing behavior. In H.P. Ziegler and P. Marler (Eds.), Behavioral Neurobiology of Birdsong, pp. 1–30. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wray, A. (1998). Protolanguage as a holistic system for social interaction. Language and Communication, 18, 47–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeigler, H. P. & Marler, P. (Eds.) (2004). Behavioral Neurobiology of Birdsong. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zahavi, A. (1993). The fallacy of conventional signaling. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 340, 227–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zahavi, A. and Zahavi, A. (1997). The handicap principle: A missing piece of Darwin’s puzzle. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gamla Kyrkv. 44, SE-14171, Segeltorp, Sweden

    Bjorn Merker

  2. RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan

    Kazuo Okanoya

Authors
  1. Bjorn Merker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kazuo Okanoya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK

    Caroline Lyon  & Chrystopher L. Nehaniv  & 

  2. School of Computing Communications and Electronics, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

    Angelo Cangelosi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2007 Springer-Verlag London Limited

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Merker, B., Okanoya, K. (2007). The Natural History of Human Language: Bridging the Gaps without Magic. In: Lyon, C., Nehaniv, C.L., Cangelosi, A. (eds) Emergence of Communication and Language. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-779-4_21

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-779-4_21

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84628-491-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84628-779-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation