1887
Volume 19, Issue 1-2
  • ISSN 1572-0373
  • E-ISSN: 1572-0381
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

In this paper, we complement proximate or ‘how’ explanations for the origins of language, broadening our perspective to include fitness-consequences explanations, i.e. ultimate, or ‘why’ explanations. We identify the as a fundamental prerequisite for the development of a language-like system of symbolic communication. The platform of trust is a social niche in which cheap but honest communication with non-kin is possible, because messages tend to be trusted as a default. We briefly consider the place of the platform of trust on the road map as laid out in the Mirror System Hypothesis. We then turn to recent research on turn-taking in primates, which has been proposed as a precursor of the cooperative structuring of conversation in humans. We suggest, instead, that human turn-taking, in its full richness that makes it an interesting explanatory target, may only appear in a communicative system that is already founded on a community-wide, cooperative platform of trust.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/is.17031.wac
2018-09-17
2025-02-12
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Arbib, M.
    (2012) How the brain got language. Oxford: OUP.10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199896684.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199896684.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  2. Arbib, M., Ganesh, V., & Gasser, B.
    (2014) Dyadic brain modelling, mirror systems and the ontogenetic ritualization of ape gesture. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 369(1644), 20130414.10.1098/rstb.2013.0414
    https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0414 [Google Scholar]
  3. Arbib, M. A.
    (2016) Towards a computational comparative neuroprimatology: framing the language-ready brain. Physics of life reviews, 16, 1–54.10.1016/j.plrev.2015.09.003
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2015.09.003 [Google Scholar]
  4. Axelrod, R.
    (1984) The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Burkart, J. M., Hrdy, S. B., and Van Schaik, C. P.
    (2009) Cooperative breeding and human cognitive evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews18(5), 175–186.10.1002/evan.20222
    https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.20222 [Google Scholar]
  6. Burkart, J. M., Allon, O., Amici, F., Fichtel, C., Finkenwirth, C., Heschl, A., … and Meulman, E. J.
    (2014) The evolutionary origin of human hyper-cooperation. Nature communications5, 4747.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Burkart, J. M., Guerreiro Martins, E. M., Miss, F., & Zürcher, Y.
    (2018) From sharing food to sharing information. Cooperative breeding and language evolution. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 136–150.10.1075/is.17026.bur
    https://doi.org/10.1075/is.17026.bur [Google Scholar]
  8. Chow, C. P., Mitchell, J. F., and Miller, C. T.
    (2015) Vocal turn-taking in a non-human primate is learned during ontogeny. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 282 (1807), 20150069.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Clark, H. H.
    (1996) Using language, Cambridge: CUP.10.1017/CBO9780511620539
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620539
  10. Couper-Kuhlen, E., and Selting, M.
    (1996) “Towards an interactional perspective on prosody and a prosodic perspective on interaction,” inProsody in Conversation, eds.E. Couper-Kuhlen and M. Selting (Cambridge: CUP), 11–56.10.1017/CBO9780511597862.003
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511597862.003 [Google Scholar]
  11. de Boer, M., Kokal, I., Blokpoel, M., Liu, R., Stolk, A., Roelofs, K., … & Toni, I.
    (2017) Oxytocin modulates human communication by enhancing cognitive exploration. Psychoneuroendocrinology86, 64–72.10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.09.010
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.09.010 [Google Scholar]
  12. Fedurek, P., Slocombe, K. E., Hartel, J. A., and Zuberbühler, K.
    (2015) Chimpanzee lip-smacking facilitates cooperative behavior. Scientific reports, 5.10.1038/srep13460
    https://doi.org/10.1038/srep13460 [Google Scholar]
  13. Fitch, T.
    (2004) “Kin selection and ‘mother tongues’: a neglected component in language evolution”, inEvolution of communication systems: A comparative approach, eds.D. K. Oller and U. Griebel (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), 275–296.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. (2010) The Evolution of Language. Cambridge: CUP.10.1017/CBO9780511817779
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511817779
  15. Fröhlich, M., Kuchenbuch, P., Müller, G., Fruth, B., Furuichi, T., Wittig, R. M. and Pika, S.
    (2016) Unpeeling the layers of language: Bonobos and chimpanzees engage in cooperative turn-taking sequences. Scientific reports, 6, 25887.10.1038/srep25887
    https://doi.org/10.1038/srep25887 [Google Scholar]
  16. Fröhlich, M.
    (2017) Taking turns across channels: Conversation-analytic tools in animal communication. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews80, 201–20910.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.05.005
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.05.005 [Google Scholar]
  17. Gärdenfors, P.
    (2004) Cooperation and the evolution of symbolic communication. In: Oller, K., Griebel, U. (Eds) The Evolution of Communication Systems. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp.237–256.
  18. Ghazanfar, A. A. and Takahashi, D. Y.
    (2014) The evolution of speech: vision, rhythm, cooperation. Trends in Cognitive Science18(10), 543–553.10.1016/j.tics.2014.06.004
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2014.06.004 [Google Scholar]
  19. Grice, H. P.
    (1975) “Logic and conversation”, inSyntax and Semantics, Speech Acts (vol.3), eds.P. Cole and J. Morgan (New York: Academic Press), 41–58.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Griffin, Z. M. and Bock, K.
    (2000) What the eyes say about speaking. Psychological Science4, 274–279.10.1111/1467‑9280.00255
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00255 [Google Scholar]
  21. Hare, B.
    (2017) Survival of the friendliest: Homo sapiens evolved via selection for prosociality. Annual review of psychology68, 155–186.10.1146/annurev‑psych‑010416‑044201
    https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-044201 [Google Scholar]
  22. Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N. A., and Fitch, T.
    (2002) The faculty of language: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?Science298, 1569–1579.10.1126/science.298.5598.1569
    https://doi.org/10.1126/science.298.5598.1569 [Google Scholar]
  23. Hockett, C. F.
    (1963) “The Problem of Universals in Language” inJ. Greenberg (ed.), Universals of Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1–29.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Hrdy, S.
    (2009) Mothers and others. London: HUP.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Hurford, J.
    (2007) The origins of meaning. Language in the light of evolution. Oxford: OUP.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Jaeggi, A. V., Burkart, J. M., & Van Schaik, C. P.
    (2010) On the psychology of cooperation in humans and other primates: combining the natural history and experimental evidence of prosociality. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 365(1553), 2723–2735.10.1098/rstb.2010.0118
    https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0118 [Google Scholar]
  27. Keller, P. E., Novembre, G. and Hove, M. J.
    (2014) Rhythm in joint action: psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms for real-time interpersonal coordination. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B369 (1658), 20130394.10.1098/rstb.2013.0394
    https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0394 [Google Scholar]
  28. Kendon, A.
    (2004) Gesture. Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: CUP.10.1017/CBO9780511807572
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511807572 [Google Scholar]
  29. Knight, C.
    (1998) Ritual/speech coevolution: A solution to the problem of deception. InHurford, J. et al. (Eds.), Approaches to the Evolution of Language, Cambridge: CUP, 68–91.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Knight, C., and Lewis, J. D.
    (2017) Wild Voices: Mimicry, Reversal, Metaphor, and the Emergence of Language. Current Anthropology, 58(4), 435–453.10.1086/692905
    https://doi.org/10.1086/692905 [Google Scholar]
  31. Krebs, J. R., Dawkins, R.
    (1984) “Animal Signals: Mind-Reading and Manipulation”, inJ. R. Krebs and R. Dawkins (Eds.), Behavioral Ecology. Oxford: Blackwell, 380–402.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Levelt, W. M.
    (1999) “Producing spoken language: a blueprint of the speaker,” inThe Neurocognition of Language, eds.C. Brown and P. Hagoort, Oxford: OUP, 83–122.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Levinson, S.
    (1983) Pragmatics. Cambridge: CUP.10.1017/CBO9780511813313
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813313 [Google Scholar]
  34. Levinson, S. C.
    (2006) On the human “interaction engine”. In: Enfield, N. J., Levinson, S. C. (Eds.), Roots of Human Sociality: Culture, Cognition and Interaction. Berg, Oxford, pp.39–69.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. (2016) Turn-taking in human communication, origins, and implications for language processing. Trends Cogn. Sci. 20 (1), 6–14.10.1016/j.tics.2015.10.010
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.10.010 [Google Scholar]
  36. Levinson, S., and Torreira, F.
    (2015) Timing in turn-taking and its implications for processing models of language. Frontiers in Psychology6, 731.10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00731
    https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00731 [Google Scholar]
  37. Masataka, N., and Biben, M.
    (1987) Temporal rules regulating affiliative vocal exchanges of squirrel monkeys. Behavior101 (4), 311–319.10.1163/156853987X00035
    https://doi.org/10.1163/156853987X00035 [Google Scholar]
  38. Maynard Smith, J., and Harper, D.
    (2003) Animal Signals. Oxford: OUP.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Mitani, J. C.
    (2009) Cooperation and competition in chimpanzees: current understanding and future challenges. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews18(5), 215–227.10.1002/evan.20229
    https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.20229 [Google Scholar]
  40. Nave, G., Camerer, C., & McCullough, M.
    (2015) Does oxytocin increase trust in humans?Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(6), 772–789.10.1177/1745691615600138
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615600138 [Google Scholar]
  41. Okanoya, K.
    (2002) Sexual display as a syntactical vehicle: the evolution of syntax in birdsong and human language through sexual selection. In: Wray, A. (Ed.), The Transition to Language. Oxford: OUP, 46–63.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Power, C.
    (2014) “Female philopatry and egalitarianism and conditions for the emergence of intersubjectivity”. InCartmill, E. et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 10th Evolang, Singapore: World Scientific, pp.252–259.10.1142/9789814603638_0032
    https://doi.org/10.1142/9789814603638_0032 [Google Scholar]
  43. Roberts, S. G., Torreira, F., and Levinson, S. C.
    (2015) The effects of processing and sequence organization on the timing of turn-taking: a corpus study. Frontiers in Psychology6, 509.10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00509
    https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00509 [Google Scholar]
  44. Rossano, F.
    (2013) Sequence organization and timing of bonobo mother-infant interactions. Interact. Stud. 14(2), 160–189.10.1075/is.14.2.02ros
    https://doi.org/10.1075/is.14.2.02ros [Google Scholar]
  45. (this issue). Social manipulation, turn-taking and cooperation in apes: Implications for the evolution of language-based interaction in humans. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 151–166.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Ruiter de, J. P., Mitterer, H., and Enfield, N. J.
    (2006) Projecting the end of a speaker’s turn: A cognitive cornerstone of conversation. Language82, 515–535.10.1353/lan.2006.0130
    https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2006.0130 [Google Scholar]
  47. Sachs, J. L., and Rubenstein, D. R.
    (2007) The evolution of cooperative breeding; is there cheating?Behavioral Processes76(2), 131–137.10.1016/j.beproc.2006.12.018
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2006.12.018 [Google Scholar]
  48. Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A. and Jefferson, G.
    (1974) A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking in conversation. Language50, 696–735.10.1353/lan.1974.0010
    https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1974.0010 [Google Scholar]
  49. Sacks, Harvey, Emmanuel Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson
    (1978) “A Simplest Systematic for the Organization of Turn-Taking in Conversation,” inStudies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, ed.Jim Schenkein (New York: Academic Press), 7–55.10.1016/B978‑0‑12‑623550‑0.50008‑2
    https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-623550-0.50008-2 [Google Scholar]
  50. Schaik van, C. P.
    (2016) The primate origins of human nature. New York: Wiley.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Schegloff, E. A.
    (2000) Overlapping Talk and the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation. Language and Society29, 1–63.10.1017/S0047404500001019
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500001019 [Google Scholar]
  52. Scott-Phillips, T. C., Dickins, T. E., and West, S. A.
    (2011) Evolutionary theory and the ultimate–proximate distinction in the human behavioral sciences. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(1), 38–47.10.1177/1745691610393528
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610393528 [Google Scholar]
  53. Semendeferi, K.
    (this issue) Why do we want to talk? Evolution of neural substrates of emotion and social cognition. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 102–120.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Sperber, D., and Wilson, D.
    (1986) Relevance. Oxford: Blackwell
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Stivers, T., Enfield, N. J., Brown, P., Englert, C., Hayashi, M., Heinemann, T. and Levinson, S. C.
    (2009) Universals and cultural variation in turn-taking in conversation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences106(26), 10587–10592.10.1073/pnas.0903616106.
    https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0903616106 [Google Scholar]
  56. Takahashi, D. Y., Narayanan, D. Z. and Ghazanfar, A. A.
    (2013) Coupled oscillator dynamics of vocal turn-taking in monkeys. Curr. Biol. 23(21), 2162–2168.10.1016/j.cub.2013.09.005
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.09.005 [Google Scholar]
  57. Tan, J., Ariely, D., and Hare, B.
    (2017) Bonobos respond prosocially toward members of other groups. Scientific reports, 7(1), 14733.10.1038/s41598‑017‑15320‑w
    https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15320-w [Google Scholar]
  58. Theofanopoulou, C., Boeckx, C., Jarvis, E. D.
    (2017) A hypothesis on a role of oxytocin in the social mechanisms of speech and vocal learning. Proc. R. Soc. B284, 20170988.10.1098/rspb.2017.0988
    https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0988 [Google Scholar]
  59. Tomasello, M.
    (2008) Origins of Human Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Tomasello, M., Melis, A. P., Tennie, C., Wyman, E., and Herrmann, E.
    (2012) Two key steps in the evolution of human cooperation. Current Anthropology53(6), 673–692.10.1086/668207
    https://doi.org/10.1086/668207 [Google Scholar]
  61. Tomasello, M., & Gonzalez-Cabrera, I.
    (2017) The role of ontogeny in the evolution of human cooperation. Human Nature, 1–15.
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Tinbergen, N.
    (1963) On aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie20(4), 410–433.10.1111/j.1439‑0310.1963.tb01161.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1963.tb01161.x [Google Scholar]
  63. Vega-Redondo, F., and Hasson, O.
    (1993) A Game-theoretic Model of Predator – Prey Signaling. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 162(3), 309–319.10.1006/jtbi.1993.1089
    https://doi.org/10.1006/jtbi.1993.1089 [Google Scholar]
  64. Wacewicz, S., Żywiczyński, P.
    (2012) Human honest signalling and nonverbal communication. Psychology of Language and Communication16 (2), 113–130.10.2478/v10057‑012‑0009‑5
    https://doi.org/10.2478/v10057-012-0009-5 [Google Scholar]
  65. Wacewicz, S.
    (2015) The shades of social. A discussion of” The social origins of language”, ed. Daniel Dor, Chris Knight and Jerome Lewis. Theoria et Historia Scientiarum, 11, 191–208.10.12775/ths‑2014‑011
    https://doi.org/10.12775/ths-2014-011 [Google Scholar]
  66. Wacewicz, S., Żywiczyński, P., and Chiera, A.
    (2017) An evolutionary approach to low-level conversational cooperation. Language Sciences.10.1016/j.langsci.2017.01.005
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2017.01.005 [Google Scholar]
  67. Wagner, W. E.
    (2011) Direct benefits and the evolution of female mating preferences: conceptual problems, potential solutions, and a field cricket. Advances in the Study of Behavior43(273), e319.10.1016/B978‑0‑12‑380896‑7.00006‑X
    https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-380896-7.00006-X [Google Scholar]
  68. West, S. A., El Mouden, C., and Gardner, A.
    (2011) Sixteen common misconceptions about the evolution of cooperation in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior32(4), 231–262.10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.08.001
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.08.001 [Google Scholar]
  69. Zahavi, A., and Zahavi, A.
    (1997) The Handicap Principle. New York: OUP.
    [Google Scholar]
  70. Zlatev, J.
    (2014) “The co-evolution of human intersubjectivity, morality, and language”, inThe Social Origins of Language, eds.D. Dor, C. Knight and J. Lewis (Oxford: OUP), 249–266.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199665327.003.0018
    https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199665327.003.0018 [Google Scholar]
  71. Zywiczynski, P., Orzechowski, S., and Wacewicz, S.
    (2017) Adaptors and the Turn-Taking Mechanism: The Distribution of Adaptors Relative to Turn Borders in Dyadic Conversation. Interaction Studies18(2), is.18.2.07zyw10.1075/is.18.2.07zyw
    https://doi.org/10.1075/is.18.2.07zyw [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/is.17031.wac
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error