1932

Abstract

Detailed comparative studies have revealed many surface similarities between linguistic communication and the communication of nonhumans. How should we interpret these discoveries in linguistic and cognitive perspective? We review the literature with a specific focus on analogy (similar features and function but not shared ancestry) and homology (shared ancestry). We conclude that combinatorial features of animal communication are analogous but not homologous to natural language. Homologies are found instead in cognitive capacities of attention manipulation, which are enriched in humans, making possible many distinctive forms of communication, including language use. We therefore present a new, graded taxonomy of means of attention manipulation, including a new class we call Ladyginian, which is related to but slightly broader than the more familiar class of Gricean interaction. Only in the latter do actors have the goal of revealing specifically informative intentions. Great ape interaction may be best characterized as Ladyginian but not Gricean.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030421-061233
2023-01-17
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/linguistics/9/1/annurev-linguistics-030421-061233.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030421-061233&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Ackermann H, Hage SR, Ziegler W. 2014. Brain mechanisms of acoustic communication in humans and nonhuman primates: an evolutionary perspective. Behav. Brain Sci. 37:6529–46
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Anderson SR. 2006. Doctor Dolittle's Delusion: Animals and the Uniqueness of Human Language New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press
  3. Arnold K, Zuberbühler K. 2006. Semantic combinations in primate calls. Nature 441:7091303
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Arnold K, Zuberbühler K. 2008. Meaningful call combinations in a non-human primate. Curr. Biol. 18:5R202–3
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Berwick RC. 2016. Monkey business. Theor. Linguist. 42:1/291–95
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Berwick RC, Chomsky N. 2016. Why Only Us? Language and Evolution Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
  7. Berwick RC, Okanoya K, Beckers GJL, Bolhuis JJ 2011. Songs to syntax: the linguistics of birdsong. Trends Cogn. Sci. 15:3113–21
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Bohn M, Call J, Tomasello M. 2015. Communication about absent entities in great apes and human infants. Cognition 145:63–72
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Bohn M, Frank MC. 2019. The pervasive role of pragmatics in early language. Annu. Rev. Dev. Psychol. 1:223–49
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Bolhuis JJ, Beckers GJ, Huybregts MA, Berwick RC, Everaert MB. 2018. Meaningful syntactic structure in songbird vocalizations?. PLOS Biol. 16:6 ). e2005157Presents a skeptical analysis on combinatorial communication in songbirds, from the perspective of generative grammar.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Bolhuis JJ, Okanoya K, Scharff C. 2010. Twitter evolution: converging mechanisms in birdsong and human speech. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 11:11747–59
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Bolhuis JJ, Tattersall I, Chomsky N, Berwick RC. 2014. How could language have evolved?. PLOS Biol. 12:8e1001934
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Bryant GA 2020. Evolution, structure, and functions of human laughter. Handbook of Communication Science and Biology K Floyd, R Weber 63–77 London: Routledge
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Bryant GA, Aktipis CA. 2014. The animal nature of spontaneous human laughter. Evol. Hum. Behav. 35:4327–35
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Bugnyar T, Reber SA, Buckner C. 2016. Ravens attribute visual access to unseen competitors. Nat. Commun. 7:10506
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Burling R. 2005. The Talking Ape: How Language Evolved Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  17. Byrne RW, Cartmill E, Genty E, Graham KE, Hobaiter C, Tanner J. 2017. Great ape gestures: intentional communication with a rich set of innate signals. Anim. Cogn. 20:4755–69Provides an overview of the St Andrews approach to meaning in great ape gesture.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Cartmill EA, Byrne RW. 2010. Semantics of primate gestures: intentional meanings of orangutan gestures. Anim. Cogn. 13:6793–804
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Cartmill EA, Hobaiter C. 2019. Developmental perspectives on primate gesture: 100 years in the making. Anim. Cogn. 22:4453–59
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Chomsky N. 2017. The Galilean challenge. Inference 3:1 https://doi.org/10.37282/991819.17.1
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  21. Chomsky N. 2021. Linguistics then and now: some personal reflections. Annu. Rev. Linguist. 7:1–11
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Clark B. 2013. Relevance Theory Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  23. Collier K, Bickel B, van Schaik CP, Manser MB, Townsend SW. 2014. Language evolution: syntax before phonology?. Proc. R. Soc. B 281:178820140263
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Cornforth D, Popat R, McNally L, Gurney J, Scott-Phillips T et al. 2014. Combinatorial quorum-sensing communication allows bacteria to resolve physical and social uncertainty. PNAS 111:114280–84
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Davila Ross M, Owren MJ, Zimmermann E. 2009. Reconstructing the evolution of laughter in great apes and humans. Curr. Biol. 19:131106–11
    [Google Scholar]
  26. de Boer B, Sandler W, Kirby S 2012. New perspectives on duality of patterning: introduction to the special issue. Lang. Cogn. 4:4251–59
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Dediu D, de Boer B. 2016. Language evolution needs its own journal. J. Lang. Evol. 1:11–6
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Engesser S, Crane JM, Savage JL, Russell AF, Townsend SW. 2015. Experimental evidence for phonemic contrasts in a nonhuman vocal system. PLOS Biol. 13:6e1002171
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Engesser S, Fitch WT. 2021. Babbler phonology and combinatorial systems. Inference 6:2 https://doi.org/10.37282/991819.21.33
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  30. Engesser S, Holub JL, O'Neill LG, Russell AF, Townsend SW 2019. Chestnut-crowned babbler calls are composed of meaningless shared building blocks. PNAS 116:3919579–84Describes experiments showing songbird vocalizations with the features commonly known as duality of patterning.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Engesser S, Townsend SW. 2019. Combinatoriality in the vocal systems of nonhuman animals. Wiley Interdiscip. Rev. Cogn. Sci. 10:4e1493
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Fischer J 2017. Playback experiments. The International Encyclopedia of Primatology A Fuentes New York: Wiley https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0140
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  33. Fitch WT. 2016. Why formal semantics and primate communication make strange bedfellows. Theor. Linguist. 42:1/297–109
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Fitch WT. 2018. The biology and evolution of speech: a comparative analysis. Annu. Rev. Linguist. 4:255–79
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Fitch WT, Friederici AD. 2012. Artificial grammar learning meets formal language theory: an overview. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B 367:15981933–55
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Genty E, Zuberbühler K. 2014. Spatial reference in a bonobo gesture. Curr. Biol. 24:141601–5
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Gervais M, Wilson DS. 2005. The evolution and functions of laughter and humor: a synthetic approach. Q. Rev. Biol. 80:4395–430
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Ghazanfar AA, Rendall D. 2008. Evolution of human vocal production. Curr. Biol. 18:11R457–60
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Gibbs RW Jr., Colston HL. 2012. Interpreting Figurative Meaning Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  40. Graham KE, Wilke C, Lahiff NJ, Slocombe KE. 2020. Scratching beneath the surface: intentionality in great ape signal production. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B 375:178920180403
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Grice HP. 1957. Meaning. Philos. Rev. 66:3377–88
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Grice HP. 1989. Studies in the Way of Words Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  43. Grosse G, Behne T, Carpenter M, Tomasello M. 2010. Infants communicate in order to be understood. Dev. Psychol. 46:61710–22
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Gurney J, Azimi S, Brown SP, Diggle SP. 2020. Combinatorial quorum sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa allows for novel cheating strategies. Microbiology 166:8777–84
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Hagoort P. 2019. The neurobiology of language beyond single-word processing. Science 366:646155–58
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Hauser MD, Yang C, Berwick RC, Tattersall I, Ryan MJ et al. 2014. The mystery of language evolution. Front. Psychol. 5:401
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Heesen R, Hobaiter C, Ferrer-i-Cancho R, Semple S. 2019. Linguistic laws in chimpanzee gestural communication. Proc. R. Soc. B 286:189620182900
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Heintz C, Karabegovic M, Molnar A. 2016. The co-evolution of honesty and strategic vigilance. Front. Psychol. 7:1503
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Heintz C, Scott-Phillips T. 2023. Expression unleashed: the evolutionary and cognitive foundations of human communication. Behav. Brain Sci. In press Describes how and why humans, and only humans, evolved capacities necessary for open-ended communication.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Hobaiter C, Byrne RW. 2014. The meanings of chimpanzee gestures. Curr. Biol. 24:141596–1600
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Huybregts MA. 2020. Babbling birds. Inference 5:3 https://doi.org/10.37282/991819.20.39
    [Crossref] [Google Scholar]
  52. Hurford JR. 2007. The Origins of Meaning: Language in the Light of Evolution, Vol. 1 Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  53. Hurford JR. 2012. The Origins of Grammar: Language in the Light of Evolution, Vol. 2 Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  54. Kirby S. 2017. Culture and biology in the origins of linguistic structure. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 24:1118–37
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Jäger G 2016. Grice, Occam, Darwin. Theor. Linguist. 42:1/2111–15
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Ladygina-Kohts NN, de Waal FBM. 2002. Infant Chimpanzee and Human Child: A Classic 1935 Comparative Study of Ape Emotions and Intelligence Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  57. Leaver LA, Hopewell L, Caldwell C, Mallarky L. 2007. Audience effects on food caching in grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis): evidence for pilferage avoidance strategies. Anim. Cogn. 10:123–27
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Leroux M, Townsend SW. 2020. Call combinations in great apes and the evolution of syntax. Anim. Behav. Cogn. 7:2131–39
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Levinson SC 2006. On the human ‘interactional engine. ’. In Roots of Human Sociality: Culture, Cognition and Interaction, ed. NJ Enfield, SC Levinson 39–69 Oxford, UK: Berg
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Lewis D. 1969. Convention Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  61. Lyn H, Russell JL, Leavens DA, Bard KA, Boysen ST et al. 2014. Apes communicate about absent and displaced objects: Methodology matters. Anim. Cogn. 17:185–94
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Maynard Smith J, Harper D 2003. Animal Signals Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  63. Moore R. 2016. Meaning and ostension in great ape gestural communication. Anim. Cogn. 19:1223–31
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Moore R. 2017. Convergent minds: ostension, inference and Grice's third clause. Interface Focus 7:20160107
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Munz T. 2005. The bee battles: Karl von Frisch, Adrian Wenner and the honey bee dance language controversy. J. Hist. Biol. 38:3535–70
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Nowak MA, Plotkin JB, Jansen VAA. 2000. The evolution of syntactic communication. Nature 404:6777495–98
    [Google Scholar]
  67. Ouattara K, Lemasson A, Zuberbühler K. 2009. Campbell's monkeys use affixation to alter call meaning. PLOS ONE 4:11e7808
    [Google Scholar]
  68. Paunov AM, Blank IA, Fedorenko E. 2019. Functionally distinct language and Theory of Mind networks are synchronized at rest and during language comprehension. J. Neurophysiol. 121:41244–65
    [Google Scholar]
  69. Pepperberg IM. 2017. Animal language studies: What happened?. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 24:1181–85
    [Google Scholar]
  70. Piantadosi ST, Fedorenko E. 2017. Infinitely productive language can arise from chance under communicative pressure. J. Lang. Evol. 2:2141–47
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Pika S, Liebal K, Call J, Tomasello M. 2005. Gestural communication of apes. Gesture 5:1/241–56
    [Google Scholar]
  72. Provine RR. 2000. Laughter: A Scientific Investigation New York: Penguin
  73. Radick G. 2007. The Simian Tongue: The Long Debate About Animal Language Berkeley: Univ. Calif. PressPresents a fascinating history of playback experiments.
  74. Rendall D. 2021. Aping language: historical perspectives on the quest for semantics, syntax, and other rarefied properties of human language in the communication of primates and other animals. Front. Psychol. 12:675172
    [Google Scholar]
  75. Rizzi L. 2016. Monkey morpho-syntax and Merge-based systems. Theor. Linguist. 42:1/2139–45
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Sandler W. 2012. The phonological organization of sign languages. Lang. Linguist. Compass 6:3162–82
    [Google Scholar]
  77. Scarantino A, Clay Z. 2015. Contextually variable signals can be functionally referential. Anim. Behav. 100:e1–8
    [Google Scholar]
  78. Schlenker P, Chemla E, Schel AM, Fuller J, Gautier JP et al. 2016. Formal monkey linguistics.. Theor. Linguist. 42:1/21–90Provides an overview of a research program applying tools of formal semantics to nonhuman primate communication.
    [Google Scholar]
  79. Scott-Phillips T. 2015a. Meaning in animal and human communication. Anim. Cogn. 18:3801–5
    [Google Scholar]
  80. Scott-Phillips T 2015b. Speaking Our Minds: Why Human Communication Is Different and How Language Evolved to Make It Special London: Palgrave Macmillan
  81. Scott-Phillips T. 2016. Meaning in great ape communication: summarising the debate. Anim. Cogn. 19:1233–38
    [Google Scholar]
  82. Scott-Phillips T. 2017. Pragmatics and the aims of language evolution. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 24:1186–89
    [Google Scholar]
  83. Scott-Phillips T, Blythe RA. 2013. Why is combinatorial communication rare in the natural world, and why is language an exception to this trend?. J. R. Soc. Interface 10:8820130520
    [Google Scholar]
  84. Scott-Phillips T, Blythe R, Gardner A, West S 2012. How do communication systems emerge?. Proc. R. Soc. B 279:1943–49
    [Google Scholar]
  85. Scott-Phillips T, Diggle S, Gurney J, Ivens A, Popat R. 2014. Combinatorial communication in bacteria: implications for the origins of linguistic generativity. PLOS ONE 9:4e95929Shows experimentally that combinatorial communication systems are present even in bacteria.
    [Google Scholar]
  86. Scott-Phillips T, Kirby S 2010. Language evolution in the laboratory. Trends Cogn. Sci. 14:9411–17
    [Google Scholar]
  87. Scott-Phillips T, Kirby S 2013. Information, influence and inference in language evolution. Animal Communication Theory: Information and Influence U Stegmann 421–42 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  88. Searcy WA, Nowicki S. 2005. The Evolution of Animal Communication Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  89. Seyfarth RM, Cheney DL. 2003. Signalers and receivers in animal communication. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 54:145–73
    [Google Scholar]
  90. Seyfarth RM, Cheney DL. 2018. The Social Origins of Language Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  91. Seyfarth RM, Cheney DL, Marler P. 1980. Vervet monkey alarm calls: semantic communication in a free-ranging primate. Anim. Behav. 28:1070–94
    [Google Scholar]
  92. Sperber D, Origgi G 2010. A pragmatic account of the origin of language. The Evolution of Human Language: Biolinguistic Perspectives RK Larson, V Déprez, H Yamakido 124–31 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  93. Sperber D, Wilson D. 2002. Pragmatics, modularity and mind-reading. Mind Lang. 17:1/23–23
    [Google Scholar]
  94. Spotorno N, Koun E, Prado J, van der Henst JB, Noveck IA. 2012. Neural evidence that utterance-processing entails mentalizing: the case of irony. NeuroImage 63:125–39
    [Google Scholar]
  95. Suzuki TN, Zuberbühler K. 2019. Animal syntax. Curr. Biol. 29:14R669–71
    [Google Scholar]
  96. ten Cate C. 2017. Assessing the uniqueness of language: Animal grammatical abilities take center stage. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 24:191–96
    [Google Scholar]
  97. Tomasello M 2003. On the different origins of symbols and grammar. Language Evolution S Kirby, M Christiansen 94–110 Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  98. Tomasello M, Call J. 2019. Thirty years of great ape gestures. Anim. Cogn. 22:4461–69
    [Google Scholar]
  99. Tomasello M, Carpenter M, Liszkowski U. 2007. A new look at infant pointing. Child Dev. 78:3705–22
    [Google Scholar]
  100. Townsend SW, Engesser S, Stoll S, Zuberbühler K, Bickel B. 2018. Compositionality in animals and humans. PLOS Biol. 16:8e2006425
    [Google Scholar]
  101. Truswell R. 2017. Dendrophobia in bonobo comprehension of spoken English. Mind Lang. 32:4395–415
    [Google Scholar]
  102. van Hooff JA. 1972. A comparative approach to the phylogeny of laughter and smiling. Nonverbal Communication RA Hinde 209–41 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  103. Vanlangendonck F, Willems RM, Hagoort P. 2018. Taking common ground into account: specifying the role of the mentalizing network in communicative language production. PLOS ONE 13:10e0202943
    [Google Scholar]
  104. Vettin J, Todt D. 2005. Human laughter, social play, and play vocalizations of nonhuman primates: an evolutionary approach. Behaviour 142:217–40
    [Google Scholar]
  105. Warren E, Call J. 2022. Inferential communication: bridging the gap between intentional and ostensive communication in non-human primates. Front. Psychol. 12:718251Presents an innovative cognitive analysis of nonhuman primate communication, with conclusions similar to those of this review.
    [Google Scholar]
  106. Washburn MF. 1908. The Animal Mind: A Text-Book of Comparative Psychology London: Macmillan
  107. Wheeler BC, Fischer J. 2012. Functionally referential signals: a promising paradigm whose time has passed. Evol. Anthropol. 21:5195–205
    [Google Scholar]
  108. Wilson D. 2003. Relevance and lexical pragmatics. Ital. J. Linguist. 15:273–92
    [Google Scholar]
  109. Wilson D, Carston R. 2007. A unitary approach to lexical pragmatics: relevance, inference and ad hoc concepts. Pragmatics N Burton-Roberts 230–59 London: Palgrave
    [Google Scholar]
  110. Wilson D, Sperber D. 2012. Meaning and Relevance Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  111. Zlatev J, Żywiczyński P, Wacewicz S. 2020. Pantomime as the original human-specific communicative system. J. Lang. Evol. 5:2156–74
    [Google Scholar]
  112. Zuberbühler K. 2018. Combinatorial capacities in primates. Curr. Opin. Behav. Sci. 21:161–69
    [Google Scholar]
  113. Zuberbühler K. 2020. Syntax and compositionality in animal communication. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B 375:178920190062Presents a more detailed review of combinatorial communication systems in nonhumans.
    [Google Scholar]
  114. Zuidema W, de Boer B. 2018. The evolution of combinatorial structure in language. Curr. Opin. Behav. Sci. 21:138–44
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030421-061233
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-030421-061233
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error