Human self-domestication and the evolution of pragmatics

Abstract

As proposed for the emergence of modern languages, we argue that modern uses of languages (pragmatics) also evolved gradually in our species under the effects of human self-domestication, with three key aspects involved in a complex feedback loop: (i) a reduction in reactive aggression, (ii) the sophistication of language structure (with emerging grammars initially facilitating the transition from physical aggression to verbal aggression); and (iii) the potentiation of pragmatic principles governing conversation, including, but not limited to, turn-taking and conversational implicature. Our core hypothesis is that the reduction in reactive aggression, one of the key factors in self-domestication processes, enabled us to fully exploit our cognitive and interactional potential as applied to linguistic exchanges, and ultimately, to evolve sophisticated turn-taking, as well as complex inferential abilities, both of which seem to require fine-tuned coordination and cooperation. Supporting evidence for our proposal, as well as grounds for further testing, comes mainly from the consideration of cognitive disorders, which typically simultaneously present abnormal features of self-domestication, including aggressive behavior, and problems with pragmatics and social functioning. While various approaches to language evolution typically reduce it to a single factor, our approach considers language evolution as a multifactorial process, with each player acting upon the other, engaging in an intense mutually reinforcing feedback loop. Moreover, we see language evolution as a gradual process, continuous with the pre-linguistic cognitive abilities, which we also see as engaged in a positive feedback loop with linguistic innovations, with gene-culture co-evolution and cultural niche construction as the main driving forces.

Language evolution in a context of increased socialization: the self-domestication approach

“…Figure 2 shows an outline of a model of language evolution (and of language change in the past) under the effects of HSD, as developed by Benítez-Burraco and Progovac (Progovac and Benítez-Burraco, 2019;Benítez-Burraco and Progovac, 2020;Benítez-Burraco et al, 2021). The model encompasses four stages.…”

Did Dog Domestication Contribute to Language Evolution?

“…In particular, as noted in the Introduction, they are expected to have contributed to those aspects of languages that are thought to result from a cultural process, specifically to the structural complexity of modern languages ( Thomas and Kirby, 2018 ; Benítez-Burraco and Progovac, 2020 ), with increasingly sophisticated verbal behavior and enhanced self-domestication features being involved in a positive feed-back loop ( Progovac and Benítez-Burraco, 2019 ). Modern uses of languages (i.e., pragmatics) are also expected to have been (re)modeled by our increased self-domestication, particularly because reduced reactive aggression and enhanced prosocial behavior seemingly facilitated the potentiation of pragmatic principles governing conversation, including turn-taking and conversational implicature see Benítez-Burraco et al (2020) and references herein for further discussion. If man-dog coexistence and interaction contributed to potentiating our self-domestication features, as argued in the previous section, they should have had some impact as well on our language abilities, including language structure and use.…”

“…For instance, Thomas and Kirby (2018) have argued that our self-domestication fueled the processes that enable the cultural evolution of language, particularly, the transmission of communicative systems through learning, as well as the ability to infer the communicative intent associated with a signal or action. Likewise, in a series of related papers, Progovac and Benítez-Burraco (2019) , Benítez-Burraco et al (2020) , and Benítez-Burraco and Progovac (2020) have hypothesized in some more detail how changes in the management of aggression as a result of our increased self-domestication might have contributed to make language structure and use more complex via its impact on behaviors needed for acquiring and mastering a language (like language learning by children, language teaching by adults, or language play), with self-domestication and language complexity being engaged in a positive feedback loop. They have also advanced a potential neurobiological mechanism accounting for this effect (see Benítez-Burraco and Progovac, 2021 for details).…”

“…Third, and related to this, dog domestication made human social networks larger and more complex by including members of other species; this circumstance seemingly demanded enhanced tolerance to non-kin as well as extra emotional bonding, and perhaps improved mindreading too. Contact with non-kin and, ultimately, the establishment of intergroup social networks (but also the management of intergroup conflicts) have been hypothesized to account for specific types of human languages (see Benítez-Burraco and Progovac, 2020 for details), as well as for the emergence of modern use of languages, that is, modern pragmatics ( Benítez-Burraco et al, 2020 ).…”

The enrichment of self-domestication and neural crest function loci in the heritability of neurodevelopmental disorders is not independent of genomic regulatory functions

“…According to this hypothesis, our species experienced an evolutionary process similar to animal domestication that paved the way toward enhanced social cognition, increased cooperation, and extended social networks, which led to our advanced technology and sophisticated culture(Hare 2017; Thomas and Kirby 2018). Also, the emergence of modern languages has been implicated with the self-domestication hypothesis, where the reduction in reactive aggression – a key factor in self-domestication processes – enabled humans to exploit cognitive abilities and social behaviors to evolve more sophisticated grammars, as well as a specific form of communication governed by persuasive reciprocity (Thomas and Kirby 2018; Benitez-Burraco and Progovac 2020; Benitez-Burraco, Ferretti, et al 2021). In animals, selection for tameness, the core of all domestication events, results in a constellation of physical, cognitive, and behavioral traits (the domestication syndrome).…”