ABSTRACT
To give a simplified picture of what this means, let’s imagine that by some improbable evolutionary process dogs have developed the cognitive capacity for an elementary kind of language. In their language, Doggish, a low-pitched bark is used to signal that they are angry and a high-pitched whine signals that they want to be fed. Also a low growl functions as a warning, and a high yelp indicates that the dog is in pain. Given this kind of message system, it is likely that the dogs will develop a sense that, broadly, low pitch is associated with aggression and superiority (anger, warning) and high pitch with submission and inferiority (wanting food, being hurt). This means that a message like a low bark, which originally expressed a single unified meaning, can now be understood as made up of a pairing of two features, each contributing a different aspect of the meaning: low pitch (‘aggressive’) + bark (let’s gloss this as ‘dislike’). It is then an easy step for the dogs to uncouple the existing pairings
of features making up each message and recombine them, bringing together the meanings of both to form a new meaning, as shown in Figure 9.1.
