A tentative framework for the acquisition of language and modern human cognition.
Abstract
Modern human beings process information symbolically, rearranging mental symbols to envision multiple potential realities. They also express the ideas they form using structured articulate language. No other living creature does either of these things. Yet it is evident that we are descended from a non-symbolic and non-linguistic ancestor. How did this astonishing transformation occur? Scrutiny of the fossil and archaeological records reveals that the transition to symbolic reasoning happened very late in hominid history - indeed, within the tenure of anatomically recognizable Homo sapiens. It was evidently not simply a passive result of the increase in brain size that typified multiple lineages of the genus Homo over the Pleistocene. Instead, a brain exaptively capable of complex symbolic manipulation and language acquisition was acquired in the major developmental reorganization that gave rise to the anatomically distinctive species Homo sapiens. The new capacity it conferred was later recruited through the action of a cultural stimulus, most plausibly the spontaneous invention of language.
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Linguistic ability was significantly more sophisticated in H. sapiens than in H. neanderthalensis or other Homo species.
“The prediction made by this hypothesis is that linguistic ability was significantly more sophisticated in H. sapiens than in H. neanderthalensis or other Homo species. That idea is plausible (Tattersall, 2016), though hotly debated (Dediu and Levinson, 2013).”
From Hypotheses for the Evolution of Reduced Reactive Aggression in the Context of Human Self-Domestication (2019) · cites this paper as Tattersall, 2016
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“That idea is plausible (Tattersall, 2016), though hotly debated (Dediu and Levinson, 2013).”
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“Group-level selection in our own species had almost certainly taken place; Tattersall (2016) notes that the spread of Homo sapiens over the planet between 100kyr and 50kyr ago occurred far too rapidly to be accounted for by the slow workings of natural selection at the individual level;…”
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Botha, R. P. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108868167.010
Botha, R. P. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108868167.008
Botha, R. P. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108868167.011
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Botha, R. P. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108868167.014
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Human and chimpanzee-similar primates have distinct language gene polymorphism patternsPreprint
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- Authors
- Tattersall
- Venue
- PubMed
- Publisher
- National Institutes of Health
- Published
- 2016-06-20
- Volume
- 94
- Pages
- 157-66
- OpenAlex
- W2474251522
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 5
- Type
- other
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- language acquisition, symbolic reasoning, human cognition, human, hominid evolution, exaptation, brain size, cultural evolution, origin of language, cognitive development
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Anthropology, Physical, Cognition, Biological Evolution, Fossils, Humans, Language, Phylogeny, Speech, Hominidae, History, Ancient
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