ABSTRACT
O Did language evolve as a distinct ability in its own right, or is it just a side-effect of other evolved abilities?
What makes language special? As we saw in Chapter 1, Whiten (1999, 2007) argues that language and communication (along with mind-reading, culture and cooperation) constitute part of the ‘deep social mind’. Whiten states that what makes language special is that it enables us to transmit to other human minds our intentions, ideas and knowledge. These, in turn, form the basis for cultural transmission, a tool through which mind-reading and cultural transmission operate (see Chapters 4, 5 and 9). For Whiten, it is the combination of these four characteristics that is distinctively human. But for many others, language itself represents a uniquely human ability (see Chapter 1). According to Leakey (1994):
There is no question that the evolution of spoken language as we know it was a defining point in human prehistory. Perhaps it was the defining point. Equipped with language, humans were able to create new kinds of worlds in nature: the world of introspective consciousness and the world we manufacture and share with others, which we call ‘culture’. Language became our medium and culture, our niche ... (emphasis in original.)
Similarly, Bickerton (1990) claims that ‘Only language could have broken through the prison of immediate experience in which every other creature is locked, releasing us into infinite freedoms of space and time.’ Leakey (1994) believes that the claims made by those who adopt human exceptionalism and continuity approaches (see Chapter 1) are most passionately debated with regard to the nature
and origin of language. As Leakey says, ‘the vitriol hurled by linguists at ape-language researchers undoubtedly reflects this divide (see below, pages 156-165). According to Gibson (1992, in Leakey, 1994), the view that human language is unique ‘... fits firmly within a long Western philosophical tradition, dating at least to the authors of Genesis and to the writings of Plato and Aristotle, which holds that human mentality and behaviour [are] qualitatively different from that of animals.’ As a result of this tradition, the anthropological literature has for a long time been littered with behaviours that were considered uniquely human, including tool making (see Chapter 5), the ability to use symbols (see Chapter 5 and below, pages 130-131), mirror recognition (see Chapter 4), and language. According to Leakey (1994):
... Since the 1960s, this wall of uniqueness has steadily crumbled, with the discovery that apes can make and use tools, use symbols, and recognise themselves as individuals in a mirror. Only spoken language remains intact, so that linguists are effectively the last defenders of human uniqueness ...
