Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic
Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic
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DOI：
10.1007/s10816-020-09480-9
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发表时间：
2020-08-10
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Everett, Daniel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Barham, Lawrence;Everett, Daniel
本文认为，语言的起源可以在一百万年前（如果不是更早的话）的直立人考古记录中发现。这一有争议的主张是基于广泛的理论和证据基础，语言被定义为基于符号而不是语法的交流。皮尔士的符号理论（符号学）支持我们的分析，其符号（图标，索引和符号）的进展，用于识别人工制品的形式在符号的水平上运作。我们借鉴了关于技术在前工业社会中的多重社会角色的概括，以及非人类灵长类动物使用工具的背景，来论证人类符号使用的深层进化基础。我们的结论是，符号为基础的语言是物质上任意的社会习俗，渗透的技术ofHomo erectus和它的后代，并在扩展的规划中涉及的工具的缓存和在东南亚岛屿的早期定居。
This paper argues that the origins of language can be detected one million years ago, if not earlier, in the archaeological record ofHomo erectus. This controversial claim is based on a broad theoretical and evidential foundation with language defined as communication based on symbols rather than grammar. Peirce's theory of signs (semiotics) underpins our analysis with its progression of signs (icon, index and symbol) used to identify artefact forms operating at the level of symbols. We draw on generalisations about the multiple social roles of technology in pre-industrial societies and on the contexts tool-use among non-human primates to argue for a deep evolutionary foundation for hominin symbol use. We conclude that symbol-based language is expressed materially in arbitrary social conventions that permeate the technologies ofHomo erectusand its descendants, and in the extended planning involved in the caching of tools and in the early settlement of island Southeast Asia.