Method and Evidence: Gesture and Iconicity in the Evolution of Language

Abstract

The aim of this article is to mount a challenge to gesture-first hypotheses about the evolution of language by identifying constraints on the emergence of symbol use. Current debates focus on a range of pre-conditions for the emergence of language, including co-operation and related mentalising capacities, imitation and tool use, episodic memory, and vocal physiology, but little specifically on the ability to learn and understand symbols. It is argued here that such a focus raises new questions about the plausibility of gesture-first hypotheses, and so about the evolution of language in general. After a brief review of the methodology used in the article, it is argued that existing uses of gesture in hominid communities may have prohibited the emergence of symbol use, rather than 'bootstrapped' symbolic capacities as is usually assumed, and that the vocal channel offers other advantages in both learning and using language. In this case, the vocal channel offers a more promising platform for the evolution of language than is often assumed.Many thanks to Kim Sterelny and the philosophy of biology group at ANU for their help throughout this project, to numerous audiences at EvoLang, the AAP and elsewhere for their valuable feedback, to Matteo Colombo and anonymous referees for their comments, and to Sean Roberts for ongoing discussions. 1 This research makes it possible to make a case for gesture-first hypotheses without relying on controversial mirror-neurons (Cook et al., 2014;Heyes, 2010aHeyes, , 2010b, and is perhaps best developed by Tomasello and Sterelny.

Linking language to sensory experience: Onomatopoeia in early language development

“…Onomatopoeia represent the simplest and most direct type of mapping between form and meaning in that they implement a unimodal (sound to sound), imitative mapping and refer to specific referents. For these reasons, they can be used by language learners who do not yet possess the cognitive resources or do not yet have the language experience that has been argued to be necessary to take advantage of other forms of iconicity (Irvine, 2016;Namy, 2008).…”

Multimodality and the origin of a novel communication system in face-to-face interaction

“…There is increasing evidence for flexible use of vocal calls in primates (e.g. [14][15][16]), and research showing that it may be easier to recognize and treat vocalizations as symbolic signals compared to gestures [17][18][19].…”

Aesthetic sense and social cognition: a story from the Early Stone Age

“…See also Sterelny (2012a). But a case against the development of complex gestural language is made in Irvine (2016 various ways: they might employ less common, hard to work and perceptually pleasing materials, display high levels of symmetry, as well sometimes as artful violations of symmetry, careful retention of a fossil or other embedded object, be of large (or notably small) size and with finely worked tips. 25 Given that these were exercises in advertisement rather than practical projects, it did not matter that their displayfunction sometimes compromised or even negated their usefulness.…”