The Transition to Language (review)

This book contains a selection of papers presented at the Third International Conference on the Evolution of Language, held in 2000 in Paris. The twenty-three authors of the eighteen papers come from four continents, with the United States represented by eight contributors. These papers represent a wide variety of fields—cultural anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, psychology, psychiatry, and biology among them; the cross-disciplinary approach to the much-studied subject of language origins is an attractive feature of the book.

The chapters are assigned to four parts, each of which is sampled below. Part 1, ‘Making ready for language: Necessary, but not sufficient’ (19–90), contains three papers. W. Tecumseh Fitch argues in Ch. 2 that the low position of the human larynx may not have been as crucial for the development of full-fledged language as has been presumed. According to him, the descent of the larynx in early hominids could have functioned to exaggerate body size—a hypothesis supported by evidence from a number of nonhuman mammals such as certain species of deer, great cats, or koalas; these and some other mammals are able to lower their larynx when making sounds, or have it in a lower position to begin with. In Ch. 3, Kazuo Okanoya proposes on the basis of his study of Bengalese finch songs that, contrary to the common assumption that syntax promotes the expression of meaning, syntax might have evolved independently of message meaning for the purpose of sexual display. And it is H. S. Terrace ’s view in Ch. 4 that while subhuman animals (apes in particular) use symbols only manipulatively, humans are capable of using them also referentially—for their own sake. Answers to ‘more focused questions about the functional constituents of language and their origins . . . will contribute to better definitions of the kinds of changes in primate intelligence and communication that gave rise to language’ (85).

Part 2, ‘Internal triggers to transition: Genes, processing, culture, gesture, and technology’ (91–203), is introduced in Ch. 5 by a technical paper in which T. J. Crow argues that the gene ProtocadherinXY should be considered a candidate for cerebral asymmetry and therefore for playing a central role in the evolution of language. In Ch. 8, Michael C. Corballis attempts to expand on Gordon W. Hewes’s gestural theory of language origin. According to Corballis, why not suppose that ‘syntactic language evolved primarily in the context of gesture, accompanied by a late-emerging vocal system’ (173)? Freeing the hands from ‘talking’ would have given much support to the development of speech.

In Part 3, ‘External triggers to transition: Environment, population, and social context’ (205–94), Derek Bickerton argues that rather than being the result of intensified social interaction, some form of protolanguage arose ‘directly from the requirements of group foraging, predator avoidance, and instruction of the young’ (209). L. Steels, F. Kaplan, A. McIntyre, and J. Van Looveren list the necessary five internal and three external factors for the evolution of a lexical system. Among the former factors the authors include parallel nonverbal means of achieving the goals of verbal interaction; among the latter are sufficient group stability and small enough group size to facilitate encounters between the same individuals.

Part 4 is titled ‘The onward journey: Determining the shape of language’ (295–397). Robbins Burling argues in Ch. 14 that the gradual development of syntax in children (which takes over a decade) favors the assumption of a gradual development of syntax in evolution, because ‘this is the way evolution works’ (309). In Ch. 15, James R. Hurford attempts to refute the view that the primary role of language structure has to do with mental representation; he argues that ‘much of the structure of language has a role in systems for the external expression of thought, which includes communication’ (312). That even...