How Language Got to Be This Way

The first [question lying behind my work] is, why is language as it is? Mankind could have evolved an enormous number of different semiotic systems; why did they evolve a system which has these particular properties that language has?– M.A.K. HallidayI have been reading a series of interviews with the Australian linguistHalliday and I ran across the above passage.Derek Bickerton asks this question as well. So it crossed my mind to see how far along I have come on this blog to answering it.New functions, of course, do not evolve out of nothing. They take what they have and build on it. In language ’s case it is plain that one of the things we took is the vocalization system that already existed in mammals generally and primates particularly. Apes do a lot of screeching. We kept up that part, but at the same time we tightened our controls over the sounds we make. We got rid of the ape air sa cs that make sounds louder but less distinctive. We gained a finer control over our tongues. We developed the ability to prolong our exhaling without becoming giddy for lack of oxygen. These sorts of things are all routine evolutionary adjustments and carry few theoretical surprises. If they compris ed the whole story, there would be precious little reason for language’s exclusivity. All apes would be talkers, having long ago adapted their vocalizing apparatus. Yet that did not happen, so there needs to have been some sort of trigger, a reason to adapt vocalizing beyond the limits rea...
Source: Babel's Dawn - Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Source Type: blogs