The evolution of human communication and language

territorial songs, and by vervet monkey alarm calls. We are not yet sure exactly what is conveyed by whale songs, but a reasonable default hypothesis would seem to be that they convey messages of the same expressive power as complex birdsongs. We may be wrong about this, but the current belief is thus that any human language is capable of communicating the sum total of all that any animal species can communicate, and more. More, because we alone, as far as we know, can tell each other about ctional or abstract objects, and about events far distant in time and space. In the bulk of this chapter, I will list and discuss some of the most important differences and similarities between human languages and nonhuman communication systems, with an evolutionary perspective, in particular drawing on results from comparative psychology pertaining to our closest relatives, the non-human primates (see related discussion on language in Chapter 13).

[1]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  The Minimalist Program , 1992 .

[2]  Alison Wray,et al.  The transition to language , 2002 .

[3]  D. A. Riley,et al.  Flexible memory processing by rats: use of prospective and retrospective information in the radial maze. , 1985, Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes.

[4]  M. Corballis,et al.  Mental time travel and the evolution of the human mind. , 1997, Genetic, social, and general psychology monographs.

[5]  S. Pinker,et al.  Natural language and natural selection , 1990, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[6]  Klaus Zuberbühler,et al.  Conceptual Semantics in a Nonhuman Primate , 1999 .

[7]  R. Byrne,et al.  Neocortex size predicts deception rate in primates , 2004, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[8]  Simon Kirby,et al.  Spontaneous evolution of linguistic structure-an iterated learning model of the emergence of regularity and irregularity , 2001, IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput..

[9]  Morten H. Christiansen,et al.  Linguistic Adaptation without Linguistic Constraints: The Role of Sequential Learning in Language Evolution , 2004 .

[10]  M. Tomasello,et al.  Chimpanzees know what conspecifics do and do not see , 2000, Animal Behaviour.

[11]  Peter W. Culicover,et al.  Why Simpler Syntax , 2005 .

[12]  A. Dickinson,et al.  Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays , 1998, Nature.

[13]  John Robert Ross,et al.  Constraints on variables in syntax , 1967 .

[14]  Rudi Keller,et al.  On Language Change: The Invisible Hand in Language , 1994 .

[15]  A. Whiten,et al.  How do apes ape? , 2004, Learning & behavior.

[16]  A. Harcourt.  The Chimpanzees of Gombe. Patterns of Behavior, Jane Goodall. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachussets (1986), xii, +671. Price $30 , 1988 .

[17]  Michael Tomasello,et al.  'Unwilling' versus 'unable': chimpanzees' understanding of human intentional action. , 2004, Developmental science.

[18]  E. Clark.  Learning how to mean: Explorations in the development of language. , 1978 .

[19]  Elisabeth Rieken.  Radical construction grammar: Syntactic theory in typological perspective , 2009 .

[20]  H. Papoušek,et al.  Nonverbal Vocal Communication: Comparative and Developmental Approaches , 2008 .

[21]  Pierre-Yves Oudeyer,et al.  Self-Organization in the Evolution of Speech , 2006, Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language.

[22]  K. Zuberbühler.  Linguistic prerequisites in the primate lineage , 2005 .

[23]  D'arcy W. Thompson.  On growth and form i , 1943 .

[24]  Morten H. Christiansen,et al.  The role of sequential learning in language evolution: computational and experimental studies , 2002 .

[25]  E. Tulving.  Episodic Memory and Autonoesis: Uniquely Human? , 2005 .

[26]  Noam Chomsky.  Knowledge of Language , 1986 .

[27]  K. Zuberbühler.  A syntactic rule in forest monkey communication , 2002, Animal Behaviour.

[28]  Chris Brew.  The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language , 2003 .

[29]  A Dickinson,et al.  Elements of episodic-like memory in animals. , 2001, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[30]  Csr Young,et al.  How to Do Things With Words , 2009 .

[31]  Denise Brandão de Oliveira e Britto,et al.  The faculty of language , 2007 .

[32]  Maggie Tallerman,et al.  Language Origins : Perspectives on Evolution , 2005 .

[33]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? , 2002, Science.

[34]  M. Corballis,et al.  The evolution of foresight: What is mental time travel, and is it unique to humans? , 2007, The Behavioral and brain sciences.

[35]  D. Wood.  How Children Think and Learn , 1988 .

[36]  李幼升,et al.  Ph , 1989 .

[37]  Bart de Boer,et al.  The evolution of combinatorial phonology , 2009, J. Phonetics.

[38]  D. Sperber,et al.  Relevance: Communication and Cognition , 1997 .

[39]  E. Tulving,et al.  Episodic and semantic memory , 1972 .

[40]  A. Meltzoff.  Infant Imitation After a 1-Week Delay: Long-Term Memory for Novel Acts and Multiple Stimuli. , 1988, Developmental psychology.

[41]  C. Menzel.  Progress in the Study of Chimpanzee Recall and Episodic Memory. , 2005 .

[42]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  Rules and Representations , 1982 .

[43]  J. Singer,et al.  Incentive Effects in Prospective Remembering , 1977 .

[44]  P. C. Lee.  How monkeys see the world: Inside the mind of another species , 1990 .

[45]  Nicholas J. Mulcahy,et al.  Apes Save Tools for Future Use , 2006, Science.

[46]  J. Krebs,et al.  Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach , 1978 .