Puzzles and Mysteries in the Origins of Language
Knight, C. (2016). Puzzles and mysteries in the origins of language. Language and Communication 50: 12–21.
Language evolved in no species other than humans, suggesting a deep-going obstacle to its evolution. Could it be that language simply cannot evolve in a Darwinian world? Reviewing the insights of Noam Chomsky, Amotz Zahavi and Dan Sperber, this article shows how and why each apparently depicts language’s emergence as theoretically impossible. Chomsky shuns evolutionary arguments, asserting simply that language was instantaneously installed. Zahavi argues that language entails reliance on low cost conventional signals whose evolutionary emergence would contradict basic Darwinian theory. Sperber argues that a symbolic expression is, literally, a falsehood, adding to the difficulty of explaining how–in a Darwinan world–systematic reliance on language could ever have evolved. It is concluded that language exists, but for reasons which no currently accepted theoretical paradigm can explain.
‘Thus semiotics is in principle the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie.’ Umberto Eco (1976:7)
1. Introduction
Language evolved in no species other than humans, suggesting a deep-going obstacle to its evolution. One possibility is that language simply cannot evolve in a Darwinian world– that is, in a world based ultimately on competition and conflict. The underlying problem may be that the communicative use of language presupposes anomalously high levels of mutual cooperation and trust– levels beyond anything which current Darwinian theory can explain. Representing radically divergent disciplines, Noam Chomsky, Amotz Zahavi and Dan Sperber are major figures whose insights have a bearing on this problem. Chomsky shuns evolutionary arguments, asserting simply that language was instantaneously installed. Zahavi argues that language entails reliance on cost-free social conventions whose evolutionary emergence would contradict basic Darwinian theory. Sperber argues that a symbolic expression is, literally, a falsehood, adding to the difficulty of explaining how– in a Darwinan world–systematic reliance on language could ever have evolved. It is concluded that language exists, but for reasons which no currently accepted theoretical paradigm can explain. Language evolved in no species other than humans, suggesting a deep-going obstacle to its evolution.