HOW SPOKEN LANGUAGE FIRST EMERGED IN HUMANS
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How Spoken Language First Emerged in Humans
Learning to speak a language is not a one-time thing instead, it is a process that people go through to learn letters, words, and phrases that one can express. The process can be related to a child learning to speak or an adult and students studying a different language from what they say. Therefore, how the language started is still a mystery to many (Barbieri 2010:201-223) Some people wonder whether it was an idea of one person to come up with language or many people’s thoughts. Others have questioned whether it was one language that began and gave rise to others or many languages began at the same time? The reason for this question is because many languages tend to be similar, especially in their greetings. For instance, in English, we say Hello, Portuguese, olá, and German, hallo. Therefore, researchers have developed theories explaining why language comes to being to eradicate so much speculation. The views have been based on different hypotheses that the researchers have had, which they needed to prove their validity.
Language existence resulted from the need for people to communicate. However, identifying the existence of language before writing is difficult. Anthropologists can only give evidence that ancient humans used language based on the drawings and writings they discovered from things that they used. Based on their findings, the language began about 150,000 years ago during the Homo sapiens era (Barbieri 2010:201-223). There is also a great chance that language existent during the Homo habilis, Homo erectus era, although there is no sound evidence to support this. Based on the written symbols discovered, it is evident that people used to communicate through sign language.
Therefore, this study argues that language began as a result of peoples’ activities. As hominids pondered through their daily activities, they needed to communicate. Such claims can be related to today’s communication. When do people communicate? Mostly when they want something done. People are defined by their activities so is their communication. The study further explores how researchers have hypothesized the origin of language based on their scientific approaches.
Previous research
Many researchers, especially linguistic anthropologists, have tirelessly pondered over the issue of the origin of language. They have believed that understanding how language began can create a basis for advancing language, especially for those who have various difficulties communicating. Thomas Sebeok and Noam Chomsky are among the early researchers of the origin of language. They came up with two main topics in their research; Biosemiotics (signs and codes) and Biolinguistics (biological evolution of language) (Barbieri 2010:201-223) Sebeok and Chomsky argue that language has biological influence; hence it should be considered a natural occurrence. Additionally, the researchers believe that every person is born with the ability to acquire language, which explains why language evolved as it is encoded in the mind of everyone.
Chomsky specifically believed that language has some universal rules as it is similar in form and structure. His argument was majorly based on the fact that every child is born with a mind that can easily understand and grasp language. In his statement, he came up with universal grammar theory, which faced much critics from other scholars like the culturalist. Culturalist argued that the innate argument of Chomsky is misleading since humans are the ones who create a culture where all things present in their minds come from. Therefore, claiming that they are born with a sense of language is somehow misleading. Chomsky does not only claim that language is innate, but he argues that it requires innate solid components for a language to be innate. The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) within a child’s brain must normally function for language to be easily grasped. LAD is essential in facilitating comprehension of complex grammatical principles in all languages (Harley 2013). Chomsky and other nativists elaborated the LAD function in the nativist theory of language acquisition. Nativist theory state that children are born with specific skills within their brains that help them learn native languages easily. The argument is that innate skills help a child organize laws of a language efficiently; hence it is easy for him/her to learn how to communicate.
Fig. 1. The parts of the brain that act as LAD.
Nativist argument is generally confused with that of behaviorists like Skinner, Vygotsky, and Watson. The difference is that behaviorists do not associate language with thought and cognition like the nativist. The behaviorists believe that language results from imitation and reinforcement (Dastpak 2017:230-238). A child starts by babbling, calling out names often used by the immediate environment, and later says the words with help from the caregiver. The argument is essential in understanding the origin of language. The hominids began by babbling, listening to sounds from their environment, and imitating followed.
Additionally, according to Harris (1996), as people tried to make non-human noises, they ended up with names given to animals and things today. The approach is explored in the bow-wow, cuckoo, pooh-pooh, ding-dong, yo-he-ho theory. The bow-wow cuckoo theories argue that humans grasped language in an attempt to make noises. This explains why some birds are named cuckoo and the origin of the quack-quack sound. The words are a representation of noises since they have no meaning attached to them. The pooh-pooh theory is related to emotional sounds that people make (Harris 1996). For instance, sounds like, oh! Ssh! and ah! The words are noises, but they are a form of language that aids communication. The ding-dong theory argues that languages emerged from sounds of feelings. As men tried to show how they felt, they pronounced the m’s sounds which became a communication tool. For instance, such words include the mmmh! Lastly, the yo-he-ho argues that language originated from efforts made by men when working. People tend to hold and release air when performing tasks (Harris 1996). The action produces sounds of ho, he, yo, yum-yum, among others.
Before Chomsky’s theories of language origin, Charles Darwin had developed the continuity approach that explained the origin of language. Darwin argued that language originated from the imitation of codes and signs and not from nothing, as some researchers have believed (Ulbaek 1998:30-43). The imitated signs and codes are modified over time, leading to the rise of other languages. He further argued that language is a result of natural selection. Words are in a “struggle for life”, as some are preferred over others (Ulbaek 1998:30-43). The Darwinian approaches are confusing, especially the natural selection, but the imitation argument is convincing. Probably language was started by one person, and every other hominid imitated the language.
Further, Hewes (1992) hypothesized that language originated from gestures. According to Hewes, the gestures theory can also be traced back to the 18th century in the works of Condillac (1746) and other philosophers like Tylor (1868, 1871), Morgan (1877:35n), and Wallace (1881,
1895) (Hewes 1992:65-84). The theory argues that language does not need to be vocal; hence it could be possible that early men used gestures to communicate before vocal language rose (Hewes 1992:65-84). The argument here is that early men did not have the same cognitive structures as modern men. Therefore, they could not readily grasp the language, especially vocals, without learning how the language system operated. Sign language was, therefore, the easiest way of communication among the Hominids. Hewes named his approach “gesture-first” to show that for any language to exist, it has to begin with signs or gestures (Hartmann & Tinits 2020:5). They indicate the feelings and thoughts of an individual, just like speech-language. However, language becomes more elaborate, mainly when both gestures and speech communication are applied concurrently. Many researchers have conducted various research on the use of gestures in interpreting and sign language use. Research done by Kam and Tkachman (2016) on 50 native speakers aged 18-72 on gesture use revealed that people interpreted speech differently and better when gestures were present (Hartmann & Tinits 2020:6). The study, therefore, shows that by use of gestures is one way of communicating even when speech is involved.
Current research
Research in the origin of language is the most vibrant today in the field of linguistics and anthropology. Many current researchers have speculated that early researchers used a lot of guesswork when discussing the origin of language. This is because most early research is based on hypotheses that lack evidence on the early man’s use of language. Additionally, Hartmann & Tinits (2020) argues that any theory used to explain the evolution of language should at least contain an understanding of language, especially how the systems of language work. Most of the views of early researchers had no clear evidence of the knowledge of these systems hence are somehow misleading.
The current research in language evolution has embraced a comparative approach in languages, especially animals and humans. The method has enabled many researchers to have a good understanding of language systems before formulating any theories. The current researchers embrace an empirical approach, unlike previous ideas that lacked basis (Ferretti et al., 2018:219-234). For instance, according to Hartmann & Tinits (2020), Seán Roberts introduced the ‘maximum robustness approach’ in 2018 to cover up the missing links that existed between hypothesis and evidence in language origin.
Manteca (2006) asserts that current evolutionists in language argue that language origin can be explained in two ways; communication and complexity. Sextus Empiricus, in his Pyrrhonian Outlines, uses the story of a Chrysippus’s dog to elaborate on the communication aspect. The dog lost track of its prey on the crossroad as Chrysippus watched; the dog sniffed the first and second pathway but did not find the scent of the prey, so it followed the third because it could smell the scent (Manteca 2006:5). The story shows that language does not need reasoning but reasoning demands language. The dog communicated by sniffing the pathway to find its prey, and through this, it decided to follow the right path. Therefore, the origin of language can be related to the dog’s story. The need to connect is a contributing factor to language. It might have started as a way of sounds, noises, or gestures, but the most crucial part is that it led to a connection among the hominids.
Grice’s philosophy of language argues that language originated from the cooperation between the speaker and the listener. Since language is complex, the speaker needs to use more straightforward language to be clear for the listener to understand. It is a form of coordination that happens between the two parties. Without coordination, then language existence in a group is hard to understand (Manteca 2006:6-8). For instance, a dog will bark not because it wants to tell the owner that a thief is in the house but because it has sniffed the presence of a stranger. That is the coordination in language; one can communicate based on the language of another individual.
Further, Jim Hurford introduced the term “glossogeny” to explain the origin of language. The term was further explored by Simon Kirby, who gave an overview of its nature and consequences. Glossogeny approach in language origin argues that language resulted from biological influence over cultural aspects (Kirby & Hurford 2002:121-147)). The argument is also related to many evolutionists who came after Darwin. Physical traits have shaped language based on the environment, which is explained by the change in language based on different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, the environment shapes the mind on the gestures, signs, or vocals to use. What people interact with regularly is what they tend to construct in their minds.
Lastly, many recent researchers associate language with pragmatics, signaling, and syntax, as indicated in figure 2. Pragmatics is the use of language in a particular social context. Pragmatics sometimes are related to body language use as it is associated with how we say certain words. Signaling, on the other hand, is the way to convey a message to others. The message will only make sense if the listener gets to understand the signal used by the speaker. Lastly, syntax refers to the organization of words or phrases in a sentence. Therefore, based on Fitch (2017), language origin can be related to the gestures and expressions used by early men.
Fig. 2. An image of signaling, syntax, and pragmatics of language.
Discussions
Most of the theories and concepts related to the origin of language may seem vague because they result from the hypothesis that the authors created. The reason for the view is that anthropologists tend to discover the history even when there is no one remaining to ascertain that something happened or not. Some of the opinions that have been discussed include; the din –dong, bow-wow, and cuckoo theories. It is evident that these are sounds that sometimes people make, but they do not mean that language originated by making noises. It is hard to believe that language that is so complex came into being through making such sounds. What about the structure of words and sentence organization? Is it all the result of noise? No, the assumption seems vague to be true.
Other researchers have related how a child learns with how the language began. They include nativists, behaviorists, culturalists, and philosophers. For instance, Chomsky believed that a child is born with an organ of speech in the brain; that’s why it is easy to learn. The assumption can be related to the origin of language. If the early man was born to communicate, why did they majorly use signs and symbols to pass a message? The argument here can be related to their brain capacity and development. Therefore, it was not easy for them to store so much information in their brain as the modern man. But still, it is not a theory one can rely on in understanding why language began. Here the child is a modern man, and one cannot compare their ability to grasp language to that of the apes.
Therefore, from a critical point of view, language could have existed from activities that people practiced. As the hominins carried out their activities, they needed to communicate. This assumption is related to coordination and signaling. For instance, if the man were farming on the farm and wanted the sons or daughters to dig with him, he would start by signaling how to dig. They would follow by cooperating with their father. The next time they see their father signaling the act of digging, it would be easier for them to understand that it is time to go and dig. one can relate the example to any other activity that people performed. It can be connected to today’s activities. Majorly people use language as they give directions on activities to accomplish or on the activities they are doing.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, language origin is a mystery that many researchers have tried to solve, especially anthropologists. However, in their various research, so many speculations have been tabled. Some of which do not have any scientific view or hard evidence. Those who have used the evidence-based approach, like the Chomsky view of a child’s language development, have been termed as vague as the child is a modern man, and one cannot compare its brain capacity to apes. Therefore, based on the approaches discussed above both by early researchers and current, the coordination and signaling aspects have been termed the most appropriate in explaining language’s origin. As people went about their daily activities, they needed to communicate; therefore, they developed sign language through signaling to one another, which later advanced to spoken language. Future research should focus more on how apes communicate, as the previous study is still missing links to their communication and interactions. Through learning their mode of communication, it could be easier to relate to early man’s experience.
References
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