Human self-domestication: Towards an eco-evo-devo approach to language evolution

Antonio Benítez Burraco, Department of Spanish, Linguistics, and Theory of Literature (Linguistics), University of Seville, Spain

Whereas language evolution is usually construed as a biological process, linguistic change is thought to depend on factors internal to languages, with a limited intervention of environmental, cognitive, or cultural elements. In this talk, I will argue that human self-domestication might help reconcile these two narratives, in the spirit of eco-evo-devo theories in biology. While it seemingly contributed to some of the brain/cognitive changes resulting in our language-readiness, it also contributed to the physiological/behavioral changes favoring the emergence of complex languages. This effect is corroborated by the presence of altered signs of self-domestication in cognitive disorders entailing problems with language.

A cognitive perspective on pretend play and language in evolution and development

Michael Pleyer, English Department/Universität Koblenz-Landau/Germany

Both pretend play and language acquisition seem to be uniquely human capacities tightly interwoven with the suite of advanced socio-cognitive and general cognitive capacities that emerge in the course of human ontogeny. In this talk I will investigate what the relationship of language and pretend play in ontogeny can tell us about their co-evolution. Specifically, I will argue that in human evolution, pretend play served as a context and breeding ground for the development of linguistic constructions to share perspectives. The evolution of linguistic constructions for perspective-sharing in turn amplified the role of pretend play in internalizing culturally salient schemas and routines.

The development of narrative in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and children with typical development: Implications for language origins

Francesco Ferretti, Ines Adornetti, Alessandra Chiera, Valentina Deriu, Cosmic Lab, Department of Philosophy, Communication and Performing Arts, Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy

In this talk we focus on the ontogeny of narrative abilities in relation to language evolution. We investigate the ability to understand multi modal narratives in children with high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and children with typical development (TD) aged from 8 to 11. Beside the narrative task, children are administered additional cognitive tests. We aim to examine: whether different performance in narrative comprehension could be found between two groups; whether the medium (linguistic vs. visual) could influence children’s performances and whether the explored cognitive abilities could affect narrative processing. We discuss results in the framework of a narrative account of language origins.

Systemic variation in language ontogeny: Insights from evo-neuro-devo perspective

Olga Vasileva, Center for Evolutionary Studies-Crawford Lab, Psychology Department, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Language evolution field has a long history of interest in human ontogeny, and specifically development of cognition and language. Modern approaches allow researchers going beyond simple analogies between human ontogeny and phylogeny in cognitive and linguistic development. The current talk discusses evo-neuro-devo paradigm, which brings together patterns of brain development in ontogeny, and patterns observed in brain evolutionary development. I will argue that systemic variation observed on genetic, neurological, cognitive and behavioral phenotypic levels in ontogeny is not random. On the contrary, it reflects the development of human cognitive-linguistic continuum in ontogeny, and allows making inferences in its development in the evolution of our species.

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