Chapter
Words and Conventionalised Gestures
3 Cooperation, Competition and the Evolution of Prelinguistic Communication
1. Language Origins and Darwinian Thought
2. Simulating the Evolution of Communication
3. Expensive Hype and Conspiratorial Whispers
5. A Simple Signalling Game
6. Stable Strategies in the Simple Game
7. An Evolutionary Simulation Model
8. A Game with Variable Signal Costs
9. Simulation Model with Continuous Signal Costs and Reception Threshold
10. Discussion of Results
11. Implications for Theories of Language Evolution
4 Language and Hominid Politics
1. Introduction: The Language Gap
1.1. Uniqueness of Relevant Speech
1.2. Linguistic Relevance and Biological Relevance
2. Beyond Symmetrical Cooperation
2.1. Evolution of Symmetrical Cooperation
2.2. Inverse Cheat Detection
3. Language and Coalition Formation
3.1. A Social Role for Language
3.2. Language as a Heterogeneous Exchange
3.4. A Simplified Account of Language Origin
5 Secret Language Use at Female Initiation: Bounding Gossiping Communities
A Prototype for Ritual: Cosmetics and Female Coalitions
Bantu Puberty Ceremonial: Cosmetics, Control and Secret Language
The Venda School of Vhusha/Domba as a System of Reciprocity
Bemba Chisungu: Gossip, Esoteric Knowledge and Ritual Hierarchy
Kpe Liengu Cult: Across Ethnic Boundaries
Factors Leading to Elaboration of Mechanisms to Counter Freeriders
Conclusion: Relevance, Gossip and Secret Knowledge
6 Play as Precursor of Phonology and Syntax
Precursors of Compositional Speech
‘Phonological’ Versus ‘Lexical’ Syntax
Play and the Emergence of Language
Conclusion: The Emergence of Syntactical Speech
PART II THE EMERGENCE OF PHONETIC STRUCTURE
7 Introduction: The Emergence of Phonetic Structure
8 The Role of Mimesis in Infant Language Development: Evidence for Phylogeny?
Mimesis in the Developing Infant
Infant Entrainment into Symbolic Word Production
The Child’s Empathic Identification with Caretakers
The Child’s Move from Syllabic Babbling to First Words
Prerequisites for the Referential Use of Words
9 Evolution of Speech: The Relation Between Ontogeny and Phylogeny
From Primate Calls to Speech: The Frame/Content Theory
What Is the Evidence for an Evolutionary Increase in Speech Complexity?
A Possible Parallel Between Ontogeny and Phylogeny: Frames, Then Content
From Frames to Frame/Content
10 Evolutionary Implications of the Particulate Principle: Imitation and the Dissociation of Phonetic Form from Semantic…
The Nature of the Language Hierarchy
The Particulate Principle of Self-Diversifying Systems
The Dissociation of Sound and Meaning
Units and the Vocal Mechanism
From Syllable to Gesture to Segment
The Process of Vocal Imitation and the Loss of Meaning
The Emergence of an Independent Level of Phonetic Representation
Phonetic Memory: A Preadaptation for Displaced Reference and Syntax
The Syllabic Origins of Phonetic Structure
The Particulate Basis of Writing and Reading
11 Emergence of Sound Systems Through Self-Organisation
Towards Complex Utterances
Conclusions and Discussion
12 Modelling Language-Physiology Coevolution
Computational Models of Language-Learning Populations
Modelling Language-Physiology Coevolution
Experiment 1: Language Negotiation in Populations of Homogeneous Language Capability
Experiment 2: Language-Physiology Coevolution
Experiment 3: Costly Language-Physiology Coevolution
Experiment 4: Negotiation and Evolution Without Spatial Organisation
PART III THE EMERGENCE OF SYNTAX
13 Introduction: The Emergence of Syntax
Appendix on Syntactic Notation
14 The Spandrels of the Linguistic Genotype
A UG Condition on Movement Traces
Singularists and Pluralists
The Condition Is Partially Dysfunctional
15 The Distinction Between Sentences and Noun Phrases: An Impediment to Language Evolution?
1. Introduction: Grammar as Historical Accident
2. The Sentence-NP Distinction as an Evolutionary Problem
3. A Scenario for the Origin of the Sentence-NP Distinction
4. Precise Implications of the Syllabic Model for Syntax
5. Archaeological and Later Linguistic Evidence
6. Conclusion: Grammar as a Mixed Blessing
16 How Protolanguage Became Language
2. Reciprocal Altruism, the Social Calculus and the Roots of Syntax
3. Signal Coherence and Syntax
4. Baldwin Effects, Parsing and Speaker-Hearer Conflicts
5. Some Possible Objections
17 Holistic Utterances in Protolanguage: The Link from Primates to Humans
The Nature of Human Language
Was Protolanguage Holistic?
Explanatory Advantages of Continuity
Utterances in Protolanguage
Levels of Abstraction and Generalisability
Absence of Reference and Description
The Appearance of Grammar
The Effect of Counterexamples
A Continuing Role for Holistic Sequences
18 Syntax Without Natural Selection: How Compositionality Emerges from Vocabulary in a Population of Learners
Features of a Desirable Model
Why Does This Model Work?
19 Social Transmission Favours Linguistic Generalisation
Speaking/Invention and Hearing/Acquisition
Experiment 1: Syntactic Rules Supersede Idiosyncratic Lexical Items
Experiment 2: Frequent Meanings Attract Idioms
Experiment 3: Even Limited ‘Rule Making’ Makes Regular E-Language
Experiment 4: A Binary Rule Supersedes Nonbinary Rules
Limits to the Favouring of General Rules
How This Model Relates to Others
20 Words, Memes and Language Evolution
Language Change by Evolution of Word Feature Structures
Examples of Word Evolution
Regularity and Irregularity
Biological and Cultural Evolution
21 On the Reconstruction of ‘Proto-World’ Word Order
Motivating a ‘Proto-World’ Word Order of SOV
SOV Proto-Order and UG Constraints
22 The History, Rate and Pattern of World Linguistic Evolution
A Brief History of Language Diversity
Extant Linguistic Diversity
The Total Number of Languages Ever Spoken
Evolutionary Forces Producing Language Change
Rates of Language Evolution
Rates of Word Evolution in the Fundamental Vocabulary
Patterns of Variation in Linguistic Diversity
Variation in the Density of Languages
Ecological Forces Producing Language Change
Phylogenetic Trends, Linguistic Diversity and Rates of Culturogenesis
The Evolutionary Emergence of Language
：Social Function and the Origins of Linguistic Form
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