Table Of ContentNew Essays on the Origin of Language
W
DE
G
Trends in Linguistics
Studies and Monographs 133
Editors
Werner Winter
Walter Bisang
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
New Essays
on the Origin of Language
Edited by
Jürgen Trabant
Sean Ward
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York 2001
Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague)
is a Division of Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin.
© Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines
of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
New essays on the origin of language / edited by Jürgen Tra-
bant, Sean Ward.
p. cm. - (Trends in linguistics. Studies and mono-
graphs ; 133)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 3-11-017025-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Language and languages—Origin. I. Trabant, Jürgen.
II. Ward, Sean, 1963- III. Series.
P116.N48 2001
401 -dc21 2001034295
Die Deutsche Bibliothek — CI Ρ-Einheitsaufnahme
New essays on the origin of language / ed. by Jürgen Trabant ;
Sean Ward. - Berlin; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 2001
(Trends in linguistics : Studies and monographs ; 133)
ISBN 3-11-017025-6
© Copyright 2001 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 10785 Berlin
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechan-
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out permission in writing from the publisher.
Printing & Binding: Hubert & Co, Göttingen.
Cover design: Christopher Schneider, Berlin.
Printed in Germany.
Contents
Introduction: New perspectives on an old academic question
Jürgen Trabant 1
1. Biological aspects of the question
On the subcortical bases of the evolution of language
Philip Lieberman 21
Origin of the human language faculty: the language amoeba hypothesis
Eörs Szathmäry 41
2. The first language
The apparent paradox of language evolution: can Universal Grammar be
explained by adaptive selection?
Manfred Bierwisch 55
Elementary forms of linguistic organisation
Wolfgang Klein 81
From potential to realisation: an episode in the origin of language
Bernard Comrie 103
Protothought had no logical names
James R. Hurford 119
The birth of rules
Jean Aitchison 133
How language changed the genes: toward an explicit account of the
evolution of language
Daniel Dor and Eva Jablonka 149
vi Contents
3. Beyond biolinguistics
The narration "instinct": signalling behaviour, communication,
and the selective value of storytelling
Volker Heeschen 179
Taxonomic controversies in the twentieth century
Merritt Ruhlen 197
The origin of origins: a play in five acts, with a prologue
im Himmel and an epilogue auf der Erde
Henri Meschonnic 215
References 229
Index 257
New perspectives on an old academic question
Jürgen Trabant
1. The origin of language at the Berlin Academy
1.1.
The question of the origin of language was one of the eighteenth
century's major philosophical problems. And it is once again, at the turn of
this century, one of the most controversial scientific topics thanks to the
confluence of linguistics, psychology, biology, and paleoanthropology.
Since the New York Academy conference of 1975 (Harnad et al. 1976),
numerous books on this subject have been published.1 The renewed interest
is noteworthy because linguistics officially forbade the discussion of
language origin in 1866 when the Soci0te de linguistique de Paris struck
consideration of both universal language and language origin from its agenda.
Linguistics was considered a historical science that should not speculate
about language's prehistoric beginnings or its post-historic end. Instead, it
was supposed to dedicate itself exclusively to the historically documented
middle and to faits positifs. Since then, linguistics has largely adhered to the
Paris Society's ban. Right up to our times, hardly any prominent linguist has
written about language origin, with the characteristic exception of Hugo
Schuchardt, who did so in 1919-21 at the Berlin Academy, the institution
that has served as the discussion's traditional forum.
But the verdict of linguistics did not, of course, affect the life sciences,
which, from Charles Darwin onwards, have dramatically increased our
knowledge about the natural history of humans and consequently about the
natural aspects of language. Today, evolutionary biological and paleo-
anthropological insights and a more precise understanding of the genetic
make-up of man and of the functioning of the brain combine with a linguistics
which is no longer exclusively historically oriented. The question of language
origin is back on the agenda of the language sciences because quite a few
sciences have turned out to be language sciences which previously were not
and because linguistics - at least an influential part of it - has itself become
a natural science. The linguistic profession's prohibition against the origin
problem is obsolete. The new linguistics integrates insights from the other
