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Pantomime theory of the origin of speech
According to another school of thought, language evolved from mimesis — the "acting out" of scenarios using vocal and gestural pantomime.[106][107][108] Charles Darwin, who himself was skeptical, hypothesized that human speech and language is derived from gestures and mouth pantomime.[Vadja] This theory, further elaborated on by various authors, postulates that the Homo genus, different from our Ape ancestors, evolved a new type of cognition. Apes are capable of associational learning. They can tie a sensory cue to a motor response often trained through classical conditioning.[Donald] However, in apes, the conditioned sensory cue is necessary for a conditioned response to be observed again. The motor response will not occur without an external cue from an outside agent. A remarkable ability that humans possess is the ability to voluntarily retrieve memories without the need for a cue (e.g. conditioned stimulus). This is not an ability that has been observed in animals except language-trained apes. There is still much controversy on whether pantomime is a capability for apes, both wild and captured.[Gardenfors] For as long as utterances needed to be emotionally expressive and convincing, it was not possible to complete the transition to purely conventional signs.[91][109] On this assumption, pre-linguistic gestures and vocalisations would have been required not just to disambiguate intended meanings, but also to inspire confidence in their intrinsic reliability.[92] If contractual commitments[103][110] were necessary in order to inspire community-wide trust in communicative intentions, it would follow that these had to be in place before humans could shift at last to an ultra-efficient, high-speed — digital as opposed to analog — signalling format. Vocal distinctive features (sound contrasts) are ideal for this purpose. It is therefore suggested that the establishment of contractual understandings enabled the decisive transition from mimetic gesture to fully conventionalised, digitally encoded speech.[95][111][112]
Mirror neuron hypothesis (MSH) and the Motor Theory of Speech Perception:
The mirror neuron hypothesis, based on a phenomenon discovered in 2008 by Rizzolatti and Fabbri, supports the motor theory of speech perception. The motor theory of speech perception was proposed in 1967 by Liberman, who believed that the motor system and language systems were closely interlinked(Liberman). This would result in a more streamlined process of generating speech; both the cognition and speech formulation could occur simultaneously. Essentially, it is wasteful to have a speech decoding and speech encoding process independent of each other. This hypothesis was further supported by the discovery of motor neurons. Rizzolatti and Fabbri found that there were specific neurons in the motor cortex of macaque monkeys which were activated when seeing an action (G, Rizzolatti, and Fabbri-Destro M.). The neurons which are activated are the same neurons in which would be required to perform the same action themselves. Mirror neurons fire when observing an action and performing an action, indicating that these neurons found in the motor cortex are necessary for understanding a visual process (G, Rizzolatti, and Fabbri-Destro M.). The presence of mirror neurons may indicate that non-verbal, gestural communication is far more ancient than previously thought to be. Motor theory of speech perception relies on the understanding of motor representations that underlie speech gestures, such as lip movement. There is no clear understanding of speech perception currently, but it is generally accepted that the motor cortex is activated in speech perception to some capacity.
Early speculations[edit]
"I cannot doubt that language owes its origin to the imitation and modification, aided by signs and gestures, of various natural sounds, the voices of other animals, and man's own instinctive cries."
— Charles Darwin, 1871. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex.[86]
In 1861, historical linguist Max Müller published a list of speculative theories concerning the origins of spoken language:[87]
These theories have been grouped under the category named invention hypotheses. These hypotheses were all meant to understand how the first language could have developed and postulate that human mimicry of natural sounds were how the first words with meaning were derived.
- Bow-wow. The bow-wow or cuckoo theory, which Müller attributed to the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, saw early words as imitations of the cries of beasts and birds. This theory, believed to be derived from onomatopoeia, relates the meaning of the sound to the actual sound formulated by the speaker.
- Pooh-pooh. The Pooh-Pooh theory saw the first words as emotional interjections and exclamations triggered by pain, pleasure, surprise and so on. This theory proposes that articulatory speech and language are derived from emotional explanations, but there is no elaboration as to how other non-emotional words were derived.
- Ding-dong. Müller suggested what he called the Ding-Dong theory, which states that all things have a vibrating natural resonance, echoed somehow by man in his earliest words. Words are derived from the sound associated with their meaning; for example, “crash became a word for thunder, boom for explosion.” This theory also heavily relies on the concept of onomatopoeia.
- Yo-he-ho. The yo-he-ho theory saw language emerging out of collective rhythmic labour, the attempt to synchronise muscular effort resulting in sounds such as heave alternating with sounds such as ho. Believed to be derived from the basis of human collaborative efforts, this theory states that humans needed words, which might have started off as chanting, to communicate. This need could have been to ward off predators, or served as a unifying battle cry.
- Ta-ta. This did not feature in Max Müller's list, having been proposed in 1930 by Sir Richard Paget.[88] According to the ta-ta theory, humans made the earliest words by tongue movements that mimicked manual gestures, rendering them audible.
A common concept of onomatopoeia as the first source of words is present; however, there is a glaring problem with this theory. Onomatopoeia can explain the first couple of words all derived from natural phenomenon, but there is no explanation as to how more complex words without a natural counterpart came to be.
Vadja, Edward. "The Origin of Language." The Origin of Language, pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/
test1materials/origin_of_language.htm. Accessed 19 Feb. 2019.
Gärdenfors, Peter. "Demonstration and Pantomime in the Evolution of Teaching." Frontiers in
Psychology, vol. 8, no. 415, 22 Mar. 2017, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00415. Accessed 17 Feb.
2019.
Donald, Merlin. "Key Cognitive Preconditions for the Evolution of Language." Psychonomic Society,
PDF ed., vol. 24, 1 July 2016, pp. 204-08.
Alvin M. Liberman, Ignatius G. Mattingly. “The motor theory of speech perception revised.” Cognition, vol. 21, no. 1, 1985, pp.1-36, https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(85)90021-6. Accessed 25 Feb. 2019. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0010027785900216)
G, Rizzolatti, and Fabbri-Destro M. "The Mirror System and its Role in Social Cognition." Current
Opinion in Neurobiology, vol. 18, no. 2, 20 Aug. 2008, pp. 179-84. NCBI, DOI:10.1016/
j.conb.2008.08.001. Accessed 26 Feb. 2019.