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The Evolution of Language: Towards Gestural Hypotheses DIS/CONTINUITIES TORUŃ STUDIES IN LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND CULTURE Edited by Mirosława Buchholtz Advisory Board Leszek Berezowski (Wrocław University) Annick Duperray (University of Provence) Dorota Guttfeld (Nicolaus Copernicus University) Grzegorz Koneczniak (Nicolaus Copernicus University) Piotr Skrzypczak (Nicolaus Copernicus University) Jordan Zlatev (Lund University) Vol. 20 DIS/CONTINUITIES Przemysław ywiczy ski / Sławomir Wacewicz TORUŃ STUDIES IN LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND CULTURE Ż ń Edited by Mirosława Buchholtz Advisory Board Leszek Berezowski (Wrocław University) Annick Duperray (University of Provence) Dorota Guttfeld (Nicolaus Copernicus University) Grzegorz Koneczniak (Nicolaus Copernicus University) The Evolution of Language: Piotr Skrzypczak (Nicolaus Copernicus University) Jordan Zlatev (Lund University) Towards Gestural Hypotheses Vol. 20 Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. The translation, publication and editing of this book was financed by a grant from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland within the programme Uniwersalia 2.1 (ID: 347247, Reg. no. 21H 16 0049 84) as a part of the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Ministry cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Translators: Marek Placi ski, Monika Boruta Supervision and proofreading: John Kearns Cover illustration: © ńMateusz Pawlik Printed by CPI books GmbH, Leck ISSN 2193-4207 ISBN 978-3-631-79022-9 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-631-79393-0 (E-PDF) E-ISBN 978-3-631-79394-7 (EPUB) E-ISBN 978-3-631-79395-4 (MOBI) DOI 10.3726/b15805 Open Access: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 unported license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ © Przemysław Żywiczyński / Sławomir Wacewicz, 2019 Peter Lang – Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Contents The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. .................................................. 11 Introduction to the Translation The translation, publication and editing of this book was financed by a grant from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland Introduction ..................................................................................... 13 within the programme Uniwersalia 2.1 (ID: 347247, Reg. no. 21H 16 0049 84) as a part of the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities. This Structure of the book ..................................................................... 15 publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Ministry cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. ............ 17 1 The Beginnings of Language and Language Origins 1.1 Religious beginnings ................................................................ 17 Translators: Marek Placi ski, Monika Boruta 1.1.1 On the divinity of language, the forbidden Supervision and proofreading: John Kearns experiment, and the Adamic language ............................ 18 Cover illustration: © ńMateusz Pawlik 1.1.2 Language as the object of investigation .......................... 20 Printed by CPI books GmbH, Leck Jewish tradition .............................................................. 24 ISSN 2193-4207 1.1.3 Reflections on language in Indian philosophy ................. 25 ISBN 978-3-631-79022-9 (Print) 1.1.4 Summary ........................................................................ 26 E-ISBN 978-3-631-79393-0 (E-PDF) E-ISBN 978-3-631-79394-7 (EPUB) 1.2 Glottogenetic thought: A naturalistic concept of language E-ISBN 978-3-631-79395-4 (MOBI) emergence ................................................................................ 28 DOI 10.3726/b15805 1.2.1 How to recover from the state of nature? ....................... 28 © Peter Lang GmbH Vico ............................................................................... 29 Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Berlin 2019 The beginnings of comparative research ......................... 30 All rights reserved. Monboddo ..................................................................... 33 Peter Lang – Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles · Mandeville ..................................................................... 36 New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien Condillac ........................................................................ 37 All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, Rousseau ........................................................................ 38 without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and Herder ............................................................................ 41 liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, Parisian ideologists ......................................................... 43 translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. Comparative philology ................................................... 45 1.2.2 Darwin: The beginnings of the science on the This publication has been peer reviewed. evolutionary origin of language ...................................... 49 www.peterlang.com Early Darwinism and the glottogenetic problem ............. 51 Empirical advances ......................................................... 54 6 Contents Anthropology and psychology on the beginnings of language ....................................................................... 56 1.3 Conclusion ............................................................................... 58 2 Evolution, Evolutionism, Evolutionary Thinking ................. 59 2.1 Evolution and natural selection ................................................ 60 2.1.1 Adaptation ................................................................... 65 2.1.2 Gene’s eye view and inclusive fitness ............................. 66 2.2 Universal Darwinism and cultural evolution ............................ 69 2.3 Evolutionary psychology .......................................................... 71 2.4 Popular reception and the sins of evolutionism ........................ 74 2.5 Evolution: Myths and misconceptions ...................................... 77 2.5.1 Simplification: Evolution = natural selection ................. 79 2.5.2 Misconception: Panadaptationism (naïve selectionism) ..... 79 2.5.3 Misconception: Survival of the fittest ............................ 81 2.5.4 Misconception: Preservation of the species/The good of the species ....................................................... 82 2.5.5 Misconception: Lamarckism ......................................... 84 2.5.6 Misconception: Macromutation and saltationism ......... 85 2.5.7 Misconception: Evolution has a purpose (teleology) ..... 87 2.5.8 Misconception: Evolution means progress or going up in the great chain of beings ...................................... 88 2.5.9 Misconception: Recapitulationism (“ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”) ............................................... 90 2.5.10 Misconception: Confusing explanatory levels ............... 91 2.6 Summary .................................................................................. 92 3 The Evolution of Language: A Departure from Glottogenetic Scenarios .............................................................. 95 3.1 Road to the science of language evolution ................................. 99 3.1.1 Renewed interest ............................................................ 99 Contents 7 3.1.2 Chomsky, internalism and the biological foundations of language ................................................................... 105 3.1.3 Advances in the neurosciences ...................................... 107 Research on primates ................................................... 107 Genetics ........................................................................ 112 Palaeontology and archaeology .................................... 114 Neuroscience ................................................................ 115 3.1.4 Evolutionism ................................................................ 120 3.2 Contemporary Evolution of Language ................................... 122 3.2.1 The evolution of language: A new research programme ................................................................... 122 3.2.2 New research trends in the evolution of language ......... 124 3.3 Evolution – of what? The taxonomy of “language” ............... 127 3.3.1 Syntactic parser and the narrow sense of “language” ................................................................... 130 3.3.2 Language in the broad sense ......................................... 133 Language: Not only syntax ........................................... 134 Language: Not only speech ..........................................