Scavenging, the stag hunt, and the evolution of language

Abstract

This article evaluates Derek Bickerton's 2009 theory of language evolution. Bickerton argues that language was the result of a need to recruit individuals to help in the scavenging of carcasses of megafauna. The signals used for recruitment at the earliest stage of language evolution were iconic and could be used to refer to objects outside the sensory range of the receiver(s). Bickerton's scenario is an example of what is described in game theory as a stag hunt. We can, by recasting Bickerton's scenario as a stag hunt, identify criteria that any account of the transition to language must satisfy. There are several hurdles we would need to jump over to demonstrate that Bickerton's model is valid. First, not much is known about early hominin scavenging. While the available evidence is compatible with Bickerton's scenario, it is compatible with other scenarios as well. Second, Bickerton argues that, at the initial stage of language evolution, signals were grounded in salient aspects of the environment. The empirical support for natural salience as a determinant of the communication systems used at the earliest stages of language evolution is mixed at best; communication systems can arise spontaneously in the absence of natural salience. Third, maintaining communication systems is nontrivial because of the incentive to deceive.

The Evolution of Syntax: An Exaptationist Perspective

“…Furthermore, when continuity of function is simply assumed without argument, this assumption may conceal further problematic assumptions. For example, Clark ( 2011 ) shows how Bickerton’s model of language evolution, based on continuity of communicative function, makes several problematic implicit assumptions that Bickerton himself fails to consider. Furthermore, the assumption of functional continuity may block consideration of alternative hypotheses.…”

Self-Organization and Natural Selection: The Intelligent Auntie’s Vade-Mecum

“…Bickerton's proposal has been subject to strong criticism for different reasons (Balari & Lorenzo 2010a, Balari & Lorenzo 2010b, Arbib 2011, Clark 2011), but this is not what is at issue here. What we want to emphasize is the value of Bickerton's idea as a 'textbook case' of the application of natural selection to a particular aspect of the evolution of human mind: It presents the earliest stages of language evolution as due to a process of "long, slow gestation" (Bickerton 2009: 212), that succeeded because it worked as an "evolutionary adaptation, just as much as walking upright, shedding body hair, or getting and opposable thumb" (p. 103)-in this particular case for "recruitment, that turns out to be the key word in the birth of language" (p. 132).…”

Join the dots: A musical interlude in the evolution of language?

“…All these ideas provide biologically plausible solutions to the problem of honest signalling -none involve any problematic altruism -and they additionally build in the specifically human type of co-operation that is otherwise so hard to account for. 22 [22] Many of the issues surrounding the evolution of an honest signalling system are explored in greater detail by Clark (2011) in an insightful review of Bickerton (2009) in this journal.…”

“…[22]Many of the issues surrounding the evolution of an honest signalling system are explored in greater detail by Clark (2011) in an insightful review of Bickerton (2009) in this journal.…”