Some Principles Relevant to the Evolution of Language
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Some Principles Relevant to the Evolution of Language Andy Blunden 1 Received: 9 January 2020 / Revised: 18 February 2020 / Accepted: 21 February 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract
A number of principles are formulated which must constrain theories of the origins of speech and language. The aim of the article is not to formulate a new theory of human origins, but rather to restrict possible theories by a series of principles which have a logical rather than an empirical foundation. Nonetheless, it emerges that the key activity which led to the formation of the hominid line may have been to carry things back to camp. Keywords Evolution . Language . Bipedalism . Behaviour . Human origins The problems of human origins have been a central theme in philosophy and science since ancient times, and are generally seen to be intimately connected to the question of the human essence and the meaning of life. As a result, the problem has always been highly contested and attracts interest from the public and specialists alike. The aim of this article is to separate out principles which can be argued simply on the basis of common knowledge and rational reflection, from questions which require empirical investigation or discovery. Although information from palaeontology, archaeology, anthropology, zoology, genetic microbiology and neurology continues to advance at an impressive rate, we still do not have clear answers to most of the important questions about the origins of human language in general and speech in particular. Treatises on the topic are more often designed to confirm suspect philosophical prejudices than to bring incontrovertible premises to bear on the evidence. Here I shall mention some principles which can be substantiated on the basis of widely agreed science which may shed some light on what evidence exists.
* Andy Blunden [email protected]
1
Brunswick, Australia
Blunden
The Co-evolution of Animal Behaviour and Biology All animals have a greater or lesser degree of voluntary1 control over aspects of their behaviour, with behaviour mediating between the animal’s biology and its environment. Environment, biology and behaviour co-evolve together, but at differing rates of change. The time scale within which voluntary behaviour can adapt in both ontogenetic and cultural development is qualitatively shorter than the time scale within which the anatomy of a species can evolve.2 For instance, okapis, the surviving predecessors of giraffes, eat leaves from trees and bushes but giraffes gained an advantage by evolving a taller neck. It is hardly likely that this neck grew to enormous length and then one day a giraffe discovered it could nibble from tops of trees and changed its behaviour accordingly. Clearly it was its behaviour in nibbling whatever it could reach which created the selection pressure which after many generations led to the giraffe’s enormous neck. Animals are always pushing the boundaries of their biology and their environment. The biology of the species evolves under selection
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