Cosmolinguistics: Necessary Components for the Emergence of a Language-Like Communication System in a Habitable Planet

The emergence of human language is one of the biggest wonders in the universe. In this chapter, I define “a language-like communication system” and examine the components necessary for the emergence of such a system, not only on Earth but in any habitable planet. Human language is a unique system among animal communication. Language is a system of transmitting an infinite variety of meanings by combining a finite number of tokens based on a set of rules. Language is not only used in communication but also in thinking. Thus, language is a system that enables compositional semantics. I propose that at least three components are necessary for the emergence of a language-like system: segmentation of context and behavior, the association between them, and the honesty of the emitted signals. When a signal conveys sufficient information regarding the behavioral state of the sender, that signal is defined as “honest,” meaning that its production incurs physiological, temporal, and social costs. I explain each of these conditions and discuss the possibility of “language as it could be” on other planets. I also extend my argument to the future of linguistic communication.

[1]  E. Briefer.  Vocal Expression of Emotions in Mammals: Mechanisms of Production and Evidence , 2012 .

[2]  B. Merker,et al.  Development of the Female Great Call in Hylobates gabriellae: A Case Study , 1999, Folia Primatologica.

[3]  E. Jarvis.  Selection for and against vocal learning in birds and mammals , 2006 .

[4]  A. Ghazanfar,et al.  Cineradiography of Monkey Lip-Smacking Reveals Putative Precursors of Speech Dynamics , 2012, Current Biology.

[5]  S. Brudzyński.  Social Origin of Vocal Communication in Rodents , 2014 .

[6]  B. Merker,et al.  The Natural History of Human Language: Bridging the Gaps without Magic , 2007 .

[7]  J. Newman.  Neural circuits underlying crying and cry responding in mammals , 2007, Behavioural Brain Research.

[8]  Kevin Kelly,et al.  The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future , 2016 .

[9]  Jonathan Wright,et al.  The evolution of begging : competition, cooperation, and communication , 2002 .

[10]  F. Nottebohm,et al.  Variable Food Begging Calls Are Harbingers of Vocal Learning , 2009, PloS one.

[11]  H. Meinhardt,et al.  Pattern formation by local self-activation and lateral inhibition. , 2000, BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology.

[12]  E R Kandel,et al.  Neuronal Mechanisms of Habituation and Dishabituation of the Gill-Withdrawal Reflex in Aplysia , 1970, Science.

[13]  Judith A. Hall,et al.  Facial and vocal cues of deception and honesty , 1979 .

[14]  F Goller,et al.  The metabolic cost of birdsong production. , 2001, The Journal of experimental biology.

[15]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind: Acknowledgements , 2000 .

[16]  B. Skinner,et al.  The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis , 2016 .

[17]  K. Okanoya,et al.  Mutual emotional understanding in a face-to-face communication environment: How speakers understand and react to listeners' emotion in a game task dialog , 2015 .

[18]  T. Bergman.  Speech-like vocalized lip-smacking in geladas , 2013, Current Biology.

[19]  E. Morton.  On the Occurrence and Significance of Motivation-Structural Rules in Some Bird and Mammal Sounds , 1977, The American Naturalist.

[20]  T. Deacon.  The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain , 1998 .

[21]  G. Eichele,et al.  Mice lacking the cerebral cortex develop normal song: Insights into the foundations of vocal learning , 2015, Scientific Reports.

[22]  A. M. Elowson,et al.  Infant 'Babbling' in a Nonhuman Primate: Complex Vocal Sequences with Repeated Call Types , 1998 .

[23]  K. Okanoya.  Sexual communication and domestication may give rise to the signal complexity necessary for the emergence of language: An indication from songbird studies , 2017, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[24]  K. Okanoya,et al.  MALE GIBBONS CHANGE THE NOTE ORDER ACCORDING TO THE BEHAVIORAL SITUATIONS , 2012 .

[25]  T. Geissmann.  Duet‐splitting and the evolution of gibbon songs , 2002, Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

[26]  G. Ehret.  Infant Rodent Ultrasounds – A Gate to the Understanding of Sound Communication , 2005, Behavior genetics.

[27]  Kazuo Okanoya,et al.  Neural Substrates for String-Context Mutual Segmentation: A Path to Human Language , 2007 .

[28]  Carl T. Bergstrom,et al.  Cost and conflict in animal signals and human language , 2001, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[29]  W. Fitch,et al.  Unpacking “Honesty”: Vertebrate Vocal Production and the Evolution of Acoustic Signals , 2003 .

[30]  S. Nowicki,et al.  The Evolution of Animal Communication: Reliability and Deception in Signaling Systems: Reliability and Deception in Signaling Systems , 2005 .

[31]  Elizabeth K. Johnson,et al.  Statistical learning of tone sequences by human infants and adults , 1999, Cognition.

[32]  K. Zuberbühler,et al.  The Syntax and Meaning of Wild Gibbon Songs , 2006, PloS one.