Evolution of Communicative Flexibility: Complexity, Creativity, and Adaptability in Human and Animal Communication (Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology)

367 Pages·2008·2.19 MB·English

by  D. Kimbrough Oller

53683Oller 8/6/08 5:24 AM Page 1
evolutionary biology E
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The Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology
Evolution of Communicative Flexibility o
Complexity, Creativity, and Adaptability in Human and Animal Communication l
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edited by D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel
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The evolutionary roots of human communication are difficult to trace, but recent comparative
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research suggests that the first key step in that evolutionary history may have been the establish-
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ment of basic communicative flexibility—the ability to vocalize freely combined with the capability
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of coordinating vocalization with communicative intent. The contributors to this volume investigate
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how some species (particularly ancient hominids) broke free of the constraints of “fixed signals,”
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actions that were evolved to communicate but lack the flexibility of language—a newborn infant’s
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cry, for example, always signals distress and has a stereotypical form not modifiable by the crying
baby. Fundamentally, the contributors ask what communicative flexibility is and what evolutionary m
conditions can produce it.
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The accounts offered in these chapters are notable for taking the question of language ori-
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gins farther back in evolutionary time than in much previous work. Many contributors address the
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very earliest communicative break of the hominid line from the primate background; others c
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examine the evolutionary origins of flexibility in, for example, birds and marine mammals. The
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volume’s interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives illuminate issues that are on the cutting edge i
of recent research on this topic. v Evolution of Communicative Flexibility
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D. Kimbrough Oller is Professor and Plough Chair of Excellence in the School of Audiology and F
Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Memphis. Ulrike Griebel is an adjunct faculty le Complexity, Creativity, and Adaptability
member of the Department of Biology at the University of Memphis. Oller is an external faculty x
member and Griebel a member of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition i in Human and Animal Communication
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Research, Altenberg, Austria. They are the editors of Evolution of Communications Systems: A
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Comparative Approach(MIT Press, 2004). l
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t edited by D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel
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“From talking parrots and femme fatale fireflies to singing seals and human children, the
authorsleave few stones unturned in this wide-ranging and up-to-date survey. The topic—how
organisms evolve flexible communication systems—is one of central relevance to the evolution of
human spoken language.” O
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—W. Tecumseh Fitch, University of St Andrews l
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“Many books about communication deal with signals and signaling, but the relevance of these a
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subjects to language—the elephant in the room—is linked to some key issues, particularly the d
flexibility, adaptability, and creativity with which complex signals are deployed. These issues are G
frequently downplayed, but Oller and Greibel, and a collection of impressive authors, tackle them r
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head-on in this broad-ranging synthesis of contemporary biological science.”
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—John L. Locke, Lehman College, City University of New York e
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The MIT Press Top photograph by Douglas Richardson rs
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
http://mitpress.mit.edu
978-0-262-15121-4
Evolution of Communicative Flexibility
The Vienna Series inTheoretical Biology
Gerd B.Mu¨ller, Gu¨nter P. Wagner,and Werner Callebaut,editors
The Evolution of Cognition edited by CeciliaHeyes and Ludwig Huber, 2000
Originationof OrganismalForm:Beyondthe Gene in Developmental and
Evolutionary Biology edited by Gerd B. Mu¨ller and StuartA. Newman, 2003
Environment, Development, and Evolution: Toward a Synthesis edited by Brian K.
Hall,Roy D. Pearson, and Gerd B.Mu¨ller, 2004
Evolution of Communication Systems: AComparative Approach edited by
D. KimbroughOllerand Ulrike Griebel, 2004
Modularity: Understanding the Development andEvolution ofNatural Complex
Systems edited by WernerCallebaut and DiegoRasskin-Gutman, 2005
Compositional Evolution: The Impact ofSex, Symbiosis, andModularity on the
GradualistFrameworkof Evolution Richard A. Watson,2006
Biological Emergences: Evolution by Natural Experiment Robert G. B. Reid,2007
Modeling Biology:Structures, Behaviors, Evolution edited by Manfred D.
Laublichler and Gerd B. Mu¨ller, 2007
Evolution of Communicative Flexibility: Complexity, Creativity, and Adaptability in
Human and Animal Communication edited by D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike
Griebel, 2008
Evolution of Communicative Flexibility
Complexity, Creativity, and Adaptability in Human and Animal
Communication
edited by D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London,England
62008MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformbyanyelectronicormechanical
means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in
writingfromthepublisher.
Forinformationaboutspecialquantitydiscounts,[email protected]
ThisbookwassetinTimesNewRomanon3B2byAscoTypesetters,HongKong.
PrintedandboundintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Evolutionofcommunicativeflexibility:complexity,creativity,andadaptabilityinhumanandanimal
communication/editedbyD.KimbroughOllerandUlrikeGriebel.
p. cm.—(Viennaseriesintheoreticalbiology)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-262-15121-4(hardcover:alk.paper)
1.Communication. 2.Animalcommunication. 3.Languageandlanguages—Origin. 4.Human
evolution. I.Oller,D.Kimbrough II.Griebel,Ulrike.
P91.E96 2008
302.2—dc22 2008005750
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Series Foreword vii
Preface ix
I INTRODUCTION 1
1 Signal and FunctionalFlexibility in theEmergenceof Communication
Systems: The Editors’ Introduction 3
D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel
II CROSS-SPECIES PERSPECTIVES ON FORCES AND
PATTERNS OF FLEXIBILITY IN COMMUNICATION 7
2 Evolutionary Forces FavoringCommunicativeFlexibility 9
UlrikeGriebel and D. Kimbrough Oller
3 VocalLearning inMammals with Special Emphasis on Pinnipeds 41
RonaldJ. Schusterman
4 Contextually Flexible Communication inNonhuman Primates 71
CharlesT. Snowdon
5 Constraints inPrimate Vocal Production 93
Kurt Hammerschmidt and Julia Fischer
6 Contextual Sensitivity and Bird Song:ABasisfor Social Life 121
Martine Hausberger, Laurence Henry,BenoˆıtTeste´,and Ste´phanie
Barbu
vi Contents
III THE ROLE OF FLEXIBILITY AND COMMUNICATIVE
COMPLEXITY IN THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE 139
7 Contextual Flexibility in Infant VocalDevelopmentand the Earliest
Stepsin theEvolution of Language 141
D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel
8 Sca¤olds forBabbling: Innateness andLearning in the Emergence of
ContexuallyFlexible VocalProduction inHuman Infants 169
MichaelJ.Owren and Michael H. Goldstein
9 Cognitive Precursors to Language 193
Brian MacWhinney
10 Language andNiche Construction 215
Kim Sterelny
IV UNDERPINNINGS OF COMMUNICATIVE CONTROL:
FOUNDATIONS FOR FLEXIBLE COMMUNICATION 233
11 How Apes Use Gestures: The Issueof Flexibility 235
Josep Call
12 The Roleof Play inthe Evolutionand Ontogeny of Contextually
FlexibleCommunication 253
Stan Kuczaj and Radhika Makecha
V MODELING OF THE EMERGENCE OF COMPLEXITY AND
FLEXIBILITY IN COMMUNICATION 279
13 Detection and Estimation of Complexity and Contextual Flexibility in
Nonhuman Animal Communication 281
Brenda McCowan, Laurance Doyle, Allison B. Kaufman, Sean
Hanser,and Curt Burgess
14 The Evolution ofFlexibility in Bird Song 305
RobertF. Lachlan
15 Developmentand Evolutionof SpeechSound Categories: Principles and
Models 327
Gert Westermann
Contributors 347
Index 349
Series Foreword
Biologyisbecomingtheleadingscienceinthiscentury.Asinallothersciences,prog-
ress in biology depends on interactions between empirical research, theory building,
and modeling. However, whereas the techniques and methods of descriptive and ex-
perimental biology have evolved dramatically in recent years, generating a flood of
highly detailed empirical data, the integration of these results into useful theoretical
frameworkshaslaggedbehind.Drivenlargelybypragmaticandtechnicalconsidera-
tions,researchinbiologycontinuestobelessguidedbytheorythanseemsindicated.
By promoting the formulation and discussion of new theoretical concepts in the bio-
sciences, this series intends to help fill the gaps in our understanding of some of the
major open questions of biology, such as the origin and organization of organismal
form, the relationship between development and evolution, and the biological bases
of cognition and mind.
Theoretical biology has important roots in the experimental biology movement of
early-twentieth-centuryVienna.PaulWeissandLudwigvonBertalan¤ywereamong
the first to use the term ‘‘theoretical biology’’ in a modern scientific context. In their
understanding the subject was not limited to mathematical formalization, as is often
thecasetoday,butextendedtotheconceptualproblemsandfoundationsofbiology.
It is this commitment to a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary integration of theoreti-
cal concepts that the present series intends to emphasize. Today theoretical biology
has genetic, developmental, and evolutionary components, the central connective
themes in modern biology, but also includes relevant aspects of computational biol-
ogy, semiotics, and cognition research and extends to the naturalistic philosophy of
sciences.
The ‘‘Vienna Series’’ grew out of theory-oriented workshops organized by the
Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI), an interna-
tional center for advanced study closely associated with the University of Vienna
(http://kli.ac.at). The KLI fosters research projects, workshops, archives, book proj-
ects, and the journal Biological Theory, all devoted to aspects of theoretical biology,
viii SeriesForeword
with an emphasis on integrating the developmental, evolutionary, and cognitive
sciences. The series editors welcome suggestionsfor book projectsin these fields.
Gerd B.Mu¨ller, University of Vienna,KLI
Gu¨nter P. Wagner, Yale University, KLI
Werner Callebaut,HasseltUniversity, KLI
Preface
Understanding the evolution of human communication presents one of the funda-
mental challenges of the future of biological science. As far as can be told, humans
communicate in vastly more complex ways than any other animal, both in content
and in form. The evolutionary roots of this human capability have long been
shrouded in mystery,but recent comparative research has begun to shed light onthe
possible origins of human communication. The key first step in that evolutionary
history seems to have been the establishment of basic communicative flexibility—
specifically, the ability to vocalize freely along with the capability to coordinate
vocalization with communicativeintent.
We have been fortunate to have been provided with a magnificent setting and
support system for the exploration of the origins of communicative flexibility. The
Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology, published by MIT Press and developed
through the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research in
Altenberg, Austria is dedicated to fostering growth in understanding of evolution of
cognitive capabilities, one of which is communication. The series is based on work-
shops conducted with small numbers of selected international figures in their respec-
tive fields. The workshop on which the present volume is based follows a prior
workshop (volume 4 in the series) with the same organizers/editors (Oller and Grie-
bel, 2004, Evolution of Communication Systems, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) that
laid groundwork for the present e¤ort. The workshop on which the present volume
is based included an extremely lively and informative exchange over two and a half
days at the Konrad Lorenz Institute, which is housed in the Lorenz mansion. All of
the primary contributors were participants in the workshop and also served as
reviewersformanuscripts upon whichthe chapters are based.
We wish to thank the Konrad Lorenz Institute, both administrators and sta¤, for
the support of the workshop and the volume. The experience of the workshop was a
genuine pleasure as was the work that preceded and followed it. We hope this prod-
uct will provide further inspiration for research and theoretical development to help
deepen our understanding of the origins of language.