The study, reported in the journal Frontiers in Language Sciences, pushes back the origins of modern language by a factor of ten – from the often-cited 50,000 years to 500,000 – 1,000,000 years ago – somewhere between the origins of our genus, Homo, some 1.8 million years ago, and the emergence of Homo heidelbergensis.
This reassessment of the evidence goes against a scenario where a single catastrophic mutation in a single individual would suddenly give rise to language, and suggests that a gradual accumulation of biological and cultural innovations is much more plausible.
In my way of thinking all pack animals communicate to varying degrees.. Watch dolphins hunt or wolves tracking and killing and tell me they are not communicating in some way…Chimps in the wild
Chimpanzees make tools and use them to acquire foods and for social displays; they have sophisticated hunting strategies requiring cooperation, influence and rank; they are status conscious, manipulative and capable of deception; they can learn to use symbols and understand aspects of human language including some relational syntax, concepts of number and numerical sequence;[28] and they are capable of spontaneous planning for a future state or event
The modeling of human language in animals is known as animal language research. Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee, was successfully taught 125 signs during his life, though some disagree on whether this can be constituted as true language. There have been other, more successful animal language projects, such as Kanzi and Koko, as well as some parrots
So to me it is not a stretch at all to assume language of some sort has been with our species since the beginning…Tarzan and Jane seemed to get along just fine with very few words….OK maybe not a great example but you probably get the idea.! Jane was smart in her way and Tarzan was well versed it what they had to do in their habitat to survive; great pair without all the comforts of a modern home…….I am amazed that the study is finally pushing the so called language barrier back so far….Interesting…
I have a little experience in Asia and some of the languages around here are tonal…Which means one simple word can have 9 different meanings (mandarin) or 5 different meaning (Thai) Context kind of makes a different but it is as though they ran out of words and started using descending, flat, rising, rising and falling, and falling tones for the same words…both are very old languages or parts of older languages. Over the last 40 years the Thai language has changed with the times. It used to be a softer language than it is today.. No doubt due to T.V. and everyone trying to make a buck (Baht) has had an effect…Then you add in the slang that has become a normal vocabulary…language is a thing that grows and changes over time… unless it is a dead language…
origins of modern language being pushed back by a factor of ten to maybe 1 million + years ago!!
No comments:
Post a Comment