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Did Language Evolve for Communicative Purposes or the Structuring of Thought?
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Journal Article
Did Language Evolve for Communicative Purposes or the Structuring of Thought?
2025
Overview
The evolution of human language remains one of the most intriguing and debated topics in cognitive science. This paper evaluates two dominant theories concerning the origin of language: the selectionist theory, which proposes that language evolved gradually through natural selection to facilitate communication, and the saltation theory, which suggests that language emerged suddenly as an internal computational system for structuring thought, with communication being a secondary development. Through a critical review of empirical evidence and theoretical perspectives, this paper highlights the strengths and limitations of both views. While the selectionist approach emphasizes language's communicative utility and evolutionary pre-adaptations, it struggles to explain its uniqueness to humans. Conversely, the saltation theory, heavily influenced by Chomskyan linguistics, argues that language emerged suddenly as an internal \"instrument of thought,\" with externalization for communication being a secondary process. While acknowledging language's communicative efficiency, the paper points out that the selectionist theory struggles to explain the uniqueness of human language compared to other animal communication systems. The saltation theory, despite addressing the \"spark\" moment of language evolution, faces challenges in explaining the universality of recursion and the process of externalization into diverse languages. The discussion underscores that neither theory fully resolves the complexities of language evolution and suggests the need for more integrative models that account for both communicative and cognitive functions of language.
Publisher
جامعة بابل - كلية التربية للعلوم الإنسانية
Subject
