GESTURAL ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE: Psyc Call for Commentators

Place/Catania: THE ROLE OF THE HAND IN THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE The target article whose abstract appears below has today appeared in PSYCOLOQUY, a refereed online journal of Open Peer Commentary sponsored by the American Psychological Association. http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?11.007 ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/2000.volume.11/ psyc.00.11.007.language-gesture.1.place OPEN PEER COMMENTARY on this target article is now invited. Qualified professional biobehavioural, neural or cognitive scientists should consult PSYCOLOQUY's Websites or send email (below) for Instructions if not familiar with format or acceptance criteria for commentaries (all submissions are refereed). To submit articles or to seek information: EMAIL: psyc(a)pucc.princeton.edu URLs: http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/psyc.html http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/psyc ----------------------------------------------------------------------- psycoloquy.00.11.007.language-gesture.1.place Sun Jan 23 2000 ISSN 1055-0143 (59 paras, 58 refs, 1 figure, 1281 lines) PSYCOLOQUY is sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA) Copyright 2000 Ullin T. Place THE ROLE OF THE HAND IN THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE Target Article on Language Origins Ullin T. Place School of Philosophy University of Leeds School of Psychology University of Wales, Bangor, Wales UK Charles Catania Department of Psychology University of Maryland, Baltimore County 1000 Hilltop Circle Baltimore, Maryland 21250 USA catania(a)umbc.edu ABSTRACT: This target article has four sections. Section I sets out four principles which should guide any attempt to reconstruct the evolution of an existing biological characteristic. Section II sets out thirteen principles specific to a reconstruction of the evolution of language. Section III sets out eleven pieces of evidence for the view that vocal language must have been preceded by an earlier language of gesture. Based on those principles and evidence, Section IV sets out seven proposed stages in the process whereby language evolved: (1) the use of mimed movement to indicate an action to be performed, (2) the development of referential pointing which, when combined with mimed movement, leads to a language of gesture, (3) the development of vocalisation, initially as a way of imitating the calls of animals, (4) counting on the fingers leading into (5) the development of symbolic as distinct from iconic representation, (6) the introduction of the practice of question and answer, and (7) the emergence of syntax as a way of disambiguating utterances that can otherwise be disambiguated only by gesture. KEYWORDS: evolution, equivalence, gesture, homesigning, iconic, language, miming, pointing, protolanguage, referring, sentence, symbolic, syntax, vocalisation EDITOR'S NOTE: Ullin T. Place died on January 2, 2000. His target article had been reviewed for PSYCOLOQUY and was essentially complete at the time of his death. Some minor editing has been done by PSYCOLOQUY Associate Editor A. Charles Catania, mainly to bring the manuscript into conformity with PSYCOLOQUY style. Catania will consider replying to commentaries on this article, but also welcomes the participation of others who may feel they are familiar enough with Place's perspectives to do so. Retrieve the full target article at: http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?11.007 or ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/2000.volume.11/ psyc.00.11.007.language-gesture.1.place