The narrative origins of language

Abstract

Central to this chapter is the idea that the investigation of the origin of language is strictly tied to the analysis of the traits that distinguish human communication from that of animals. A cognitive approach to the study of the origin of language is employed. The proposal is that the analysis of the traits that distinguish human communication from that of animals must be guided by an investigation of the processing devices that allowed our ancestral relatives to manage the transition from animal communication to language. The argument put forward is that the distinguishing feature of language is how it supports the ability to tell stories; and that the cognitive devices responsible for the transition from animal communication to language (space and time navigational systems, plus mindreading) are the same cognitive devices dedicated to discursive level processing in human communication. Given that the issue of the origins of language is closely related to the analysis of the differences between the way in which humans and non-human animals communicate, the first issue to be addressed regards the question of what is specific about language as a system of communication.