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Dorit Bar-On (University of Connecticut): 'Four Milestones in the Evolution of Human Pragmatic Communication鈥�.

Abstract:

So-called Protolanguage is a theoretical construct designed to help explain the phylogenetic emergence of human language from animal communication systems. In Expression, Communication, and Origins of Meaning (forthcoming, OUP), I argue that Protolanguage ought to be conceived as pragmatically (and therefore psychologically) intermediate, and this places certain substantive constraints on the psychological capacities with which we can credit our nonlinguistic ancestors. In particular, we should not credit them with a capacity for Gricean mindreading and the ability to entertain language-like thoughts.

In this talk, I describe four proposed hypothetical milestones on our ancestors鈥� path toward a pragmatically intermediate Protolanguage (鈥淧IP鈥�), relying on a combination of empirical and theoretical considerations. These milestones can be used to describe a phylogenetic trajectory leading from an ancestral communication system that resembled existing forms of animal communication to PIP. Clarifying the character of – the fourth milestone – and of the preceding three milestones, should, I believe, also shed some light on our ancestor鈥檚 progression from PIP to human linguistic pragmatic communication.