Group size, vocal grooming and the origins of language

Abstract

I argue that speech and language evolved through a series of stages individually designed to break through successive glass ceilings on group size. Language was simply the last of these (and hence evolved late in hominin evolution), but its precursors (laughter and singing) each played a crucial role in preparing the way for speech production.

An overview of the cognitive implications of the Oldowan Industrial Complex

“…There must have been strong selective forces for this to happen, and that selection was almost certainly involving higher cognitive abilities in foraging, social interaction and communication. This was probably accompanied by the evolution of a smaller gut over time and the incorporation of a higher quality diet, with consumption of higher amounts of meat and marrow (Aiello and Wheeler 1995), the presence of larger social group sizes (Dunbar 1993(Dunbar , 2017Schoenemann 2006;Dunbar et al 2014) and a more efficient search/processing/consumption pattern (Herculano-Houzel 2016). Dunbar (2017) argues that, prior to language, laughter and singing were probably important means of vocal grooming in the hominin social group, laying the foundations for the development of language per se.…”

Breaking Bread: the Functions of Social Eating

“…The semi-dark may have had made evening social activities more 'magical' and engaging, and given rise to a preference for carrying out such activities in the evening. It would also, of course, have placed a premium on vocal channels of communication: gestural communication is less effective in the dark (Dunbar 2014b(Dunbar , 2017.…”

Empirical approaches to the study of language evolution

“…Despite its Darwinian origins, this model has a checkered history, apparently having been forgotten and then independently rediscovered multiple times (Brown, 2000;Livingstone, 1973;Richman, 1993). In many ways, Robin Dunbar's Bvocal grooming^hypothesis is consistent with the musical protolanguage hypothesis (Dunbar, 1996(Dunbar, , 2016, although it extends beyond song to include more primitive vocalizations such as laughter (see also Dunbar, 2016;Locke, 2016;Provine, 2016). Although Darwin was quite vague about the later stage of semantics (and said nothing about syntax), his ideas were fleshed out by the linguist Otto Jespersen (Jespersen, 1922), who suggested plausible roots for both semantics and syntax (via analysis of previously holistic utterances; cf.…”