At some point, probably 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, humans began talking to one another in a uniquely complex form. It is easy to imagine this epochal change as cavemen grunting, or hunter-gatherers mumbling and pointing. But in a new paper, an MIT linguist contends that human language likely developed quite rapidly into a sophisticated system: Instead of mumbles and grunts, people deployed syntax and structures resembling the ones we use today.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The hierarchical complexity found in present-day language is likely to have been present in human language since its emergence,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Shigeru Miyagawa, Professor of Linguistics and the Kochi Prefecture-John Manjiro Professor in Japanese Language and Culture at MIT, and a co-author of the new paper on the subject.<\/p>\n
To be clear, this is not a universally accepted claim: Many scholars believe that humans first started using a kind of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153proto-language\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a rudimentary, primitive kind of communication with only a gradual development of words and syntax. But Miyagawa thinks this is not the case. Single words, he believes, bear traces of syntax showing that they must be descended from an older, syntax-laden system, rather than from simple, primal utterances.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Since we can find syntax within words, there is no reason to consider them as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclinguistic fossils\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of a prior, presyntax stage,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Miyagawa adds.<\/p>\n
Miyagawa has an alternate hypothesis about what created human language: Humans alone, as he has asserted in papers published in recent years, have combined an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153expressive\u00e2\u20ac\u009d layer of language, as seen in birdsong, with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lexical\u00e2\u20ac\u009d layer, as seen in monkeys who utter isolated sounds with real-world meaning, such as alarm calls. Miyagawa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153integration hypothesis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d holds that whatever first caused them, these layers of language blended quickly and successfully.<\/p>\n
\t<\/b>\n<\/p>\n
Word to the wise<\/p>\n
Miyagawa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s paper is published this month in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Psychology<\/i>. Vitor A. Nobrega of the University of Sao Paulo co-authored the paper. <\/p>\n
In the paper, Nobrega and Miyagawa write that a single word can be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153internally complex, often as complex as an entire phrase,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d making it less likely that words we use today are descended from a presyntax mode of speech. <\/p>\n
To see a straightforward example of this in English, take \u00e2\u20ac\u0153nationalization,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Miyagawa suggests. It starts with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153nation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a noun; adds \u00e2\u20ac\u0153-al\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to create an adjective; adds \u00e2\u20ac\u0153-iz(a)\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to form a verb; and ends with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153-tion,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to form another noun, albeit with a new meaning. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hierarchical structure is present not only in single words, but also in compounds, which, contrary to the claims of some, are not the structureless fossilized form of a prior stage,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Miyagawa says. <\/p>\n
In their paper, Nobrega and Miyagawa hold that the same analysis applies to words in Romance languages that have been described elsewhere as remnants of formless proto-languages. In Brazilian Portuguese, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153porta asciuga-mani\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d literally \u00e2\u20ac\u0153carry dry-hands,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but today colloquially meaning \u00e2\u20ac\u0153towel holder\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d is one such case, they contend, where a compound derived from old words has a clear internal structure. (In this case, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dry hands\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a complement to the verb.) <\/p>\n
Miyagawa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s integration hypothesis is connected intellectually to the work of other MIT scholars, such as Noam Chomsky, who have contended that human languages are universally connected and derive from our capacity for using syntax. In forming, this school of thought holds, languages have blended expressive and lexical layers through a system Chomsky has called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Merge.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Once Merge has applied integrating these two layers, we have essentially all the features of a full-fledged human language,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Miyagawa says. <\/p>\n
###<\/p>\n
\t<\/b>\n<\/p>\n
Related links\n<\/p>\n
ARCHIVE: How human language could have evolved from birdsong:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/newsoffice.mit.edu\/2013\/how-human-language-could-have-evolved-from-birdsong-0221<\/p>\n
ARCHIVE: Unique languages, universal patterns:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/newsoffice.mit.edu\/2012\/unique-universal-languages-0223<\/p>\n
ARCHIVE: Three of a kind:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/newsoffice.mit.edu\/2009\/three-of-a-kind<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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