Language

Cosmologies and evolutionary theories are communicated through language. I am very interested in how our symbolic and communicative capacities evolved, and in that regard I have been actively engaged in redefining communication and language from within a pluralistic evolutionary worldview.

I define communication as the evolution of physical, biochemical, cellular, community, and technological information exchange. I define language as community communication whereby the information exchanged comprises evolving individual and group-constructed knowledge and beliefs, that are enacted, narrated, or otherwise conveyed by evolving rule-governed and meaningful symbol systems, that are grounded, interpreted, and used from within evolving embodied, cognitive, ecological, sociocultural, and technological niches. 

These definitions place emphasis on the evolutionary aspects of communication and language, and they differ from four older paradigms that instead focus either on the referential or social aspects of language, or the informational or semantic aspects of communication. 

In contrast with these paradigms, my definitions for communication and language are in line with a pluralistic evolutionary worldview, one that necessitates the recognition that a multitude of units, levels, mechanisms and processes are involved in bringing forth communication and language.

Major papers on language evolution

Defining Communication and Language from Within a Pluralistic Evolutionary Worldview. (2022). Topoi 41 (3): 609-622.

What are the units of language evolution? (2018). Topoi, 37(2), 235-253

What are the levels and mechanisms/processes of language evolution? (2017). Language Sciences 63: 12-43. 

Pointing and the Evolution of Language: An Applied Evolutionary Epistemological Approach. (2013). Humana Mente, Journal of Philosophical Studies 24: 1-26.

Selectionist Approaches in Evolutionary Linguistics: An Epistemological Analysis. (2012). International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 26 (1): 67–95.

The origin of the social approach in language and cognitive research exemplified by studies into the origin of language. (2009). In, Pishwa, H. (ed.), Language and Social Cognition: Expressions of the social mind, pp. 25-46. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 

Commentary papers on language evolution

Pattern similarity in biological, linguistic, and sociocultural evolution. (2018). In Cuskley, C., Flaherty, M., Little, H., McCrohon, L., Ravignani, A. & Verhoef, T. (Eds.): The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference (EVOLANGXII).

Placing universal grammar on the agenda of evolutionary linguistics? (2017). Metascience 26, 1: 107–111.

On constructing a research model for historical cognitive linguistics (HCL): Some theoretical considerations. (2010). With Roslyn Frank. In, Winters, M.E., Tissari, H. & Allan, K. Historical Cognitive Linguistics, pp. 31-69. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

On the Different Applications of Haeckel’s Biogenetic Law In Language Origin and Evolution Studies. (2008). In: Kern, S., Gayraud, F. & Marsico, E. Emergence of Language abilities, pp. 12-29. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing Ltd.

Genes, Brains, and Language: Would Someone Please Pull the Brakes? (2008). Review of General Psychology, 12 (2): 170-180.

An epistemological inquiry into the ‘what is language’ question and the ‘what did language evolve for’ question. (2006). In: Cangelosi, A., Smith, A., & Smith, K. The evolution of language: proceedings of the 6th international conference (EVOLANG 6), pp. 107-114. London: World Scientific.

Pathologies and the origin of language: an epistemological reflection. (2006). Cognitive Systems 7 (1): 35-62.