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(1992) Language origin, Dordrecht, Springer.
On emergent pre-language and language evolution and transcendent feedback from language production on cognition and emotion in early man
Arne Friemuth Petersen
pp. 449-464
Rousseau is known for saying that words are necessary in order to establish the use of words. Condillac, it seems,was the first to see that language origin involves a similar paradox. Faced with this situation, I have expounded and elucidated Popper's hypothesis of a two-step origin of human language — which appears to meet this paradox very well — using evidence from ethological and psychological research. A situational analysis suggests that, on the one hand, spoken language originally resulted from playful improvisation or invention, based upon certain pre-adaptations for communication (proto-language codes) which early man shared in part with other higher primates. Human language, on the other hand, probably evolved further under the influence of a combined selection pressure deriving from certain interacting exosomatic (external) factors. This evolution may have been a consequence of the way in which Homo sapiens" use of language changed the impact of these factors.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-2039-7_23
Full citation:
Friemuth Petersen, A. (1992)., On emergent pre-language and language evolution and transcendent feedback from language production on cognition and emotion in early man, in J. Wind, B. Chiarelli, B. Bichakjian, A. Nocentini & A. Jonker (eds.), Language origin, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 449-464.
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