{"id":2342,"date":"2013-02-23T20:36:18","date_gmt":"2013-02-23T19:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/?p=2342"},"modified":"2024-02-24T10:39:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-24T09:39:44","slug":"did-human-language-first-emerge-as-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/blogs\/icci-blog\/did-human-language-first-emerge-as-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Did human language first emerge as songs?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A thought-provoking new paper on the evolutionary emergence of language by Shigeru Miyagawa, Robert C. Berwick, and Kazuo Okanoya: &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/cognitionandculture.local\/wp-content\/uploads\/fpsyg-04-00071.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The emergence of hierarchical structure in human language.<\/a>&#8221; Freely available in Frontiers in Language Sciences 20 Feb 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Abstract:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We propose a novel account for the emergence of human language syntax. Like many evolutionary innovations, language arose from the adventitious combination of two pre-existing, simpler systems that had been evolved for other functional tasks. The first system, Type E(xpression), is found in birdsong, where the same song marks territory, mating availability, and similar \u201cexpressive\u201d functions. The second system, Type L(exical), has been suggestively found in non-human primate calls and in honeybee waggle dances, where it demarcates predicates with one or more \u201carguments,\u201d such as combinations of calls in monkeys or compass headings set to sun position in honeybees. We show that human language syntax is composed of two layers that parallel these two independently evolved systems: an \u201cE\u201d layer resembling the Type E system of birdsong and an \u201cL\u201d layer providing words. The existence of the \u201cE\u201d and \u201cL\u201d layers can be confirmed using standard linguistic methodology. Each layer, E and L, when considered separately, is characterizable as a finite state system, as observed in several non-human species. When the two systems are put together they interact, yielding the unbounded, non-finite state, hierarchical structure that serves as the hallmark of full-fledged human language syntax. In this way, we account for the appearance of a novel function, language, within a conventional Darwinian framework, along with its apparently unique emergence in a single species.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A thought-provoking new paper on the evolutionary emergence of language by Shigeru Miyagawa, Robert C. Berwick, and Kazuo Okanoya: &#8220;The emergence of hierarchical structure in human language.&#8221; Freely available in Frontiers in Language Sciences 20 Feb 2013. Abstract: We propose a novel account for the emergence of human language syntax. Like many evolutionary innovations, language [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":685,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Did human language first emerge as songs? - International Cognition and Culture Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scary-committee.localsite.io\/blogs\/icci-blog\/did-human-language-first-emerge-as-songs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Did human language first emerge as songs? - International Cognition and Culture Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A thought-provoking new paper on the evolutionary emergence of language by Shigeru Miyagawa, Robert C. Berwick, and Kazuo Okanoya: &#8220;The emergence of hierarchical structure in human language.&#8221; Freely available in Frontiers in Language Sciences 20 Feb 2013. Abstract: We propose a novel account for the emergence of human language syntax. 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