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The Communicative Mind

沟通的心灵

基本信息

批准号：
MR/S033858/1
负责人：
Richard Moore
金额：
$ 97.55万
依托单位：
University of Warwick
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2020 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FS033858%2F1
关键词：
Communicative Mind

项目摘要

Why do humans but not apes acquire language?According to a standard view (Tomasello 2008; Scott-Phillips 2014) humans alone acquire language because we possess biological adaptations for Theory of Mind ('ToM') - the ability to think about others' mental states - that great apes lack. These enable us to act with and attribute the 'Gricean' (Grice 1957) communicative intentions that are necessary for natural language development. Since great apes lack ToM, they can neither attribute communicative intentions nor acquire language. Problematically for the standard view, the ToM needed for Gricean communication seem to develop only with the mastery of certain natural language forms - 'realis complement clause' syntax - around children's fourth birthday. If the mindreading needed for Gricean communication is itself language dependent, then it cannot contribute to an explanation of children's language acquisition. Since new empirical data (Krupenye & Kano, 2017) also shows that the ToM of great apes is similar to that of pre-verbal infants, the standard view leaves the absence of language in great apes unexplained.To dissolve these explanatory puzzles, the Communicative Mind project will develop a new account of the relationship between ToM, language, and communication. Building on the PI's previous work, which shows that infants and apes alike can engage in socio-cognitively undemanding forms of 'minimally Gricean' communication, the project will establish that key socio-cognitive differences between humans and apes are culturally learned, not biologically inherited. They emerge because humans but not apes can use syntactically structured utterances to communicate, and because on the back of this ability generations of language-users have developed linguistic tools for theorising about mental states. Thus, it is not ToM that explains the development of language, but syntax and the cultural evolution of language that explains the development of ToM. Children learn to use these tools in ontogeny, through cultural practices of conversation and storytelling, and thereby acquire new tools for thinking about minds. The Communicative Mind will develop new accounts of the evolution of language in phylogeny, and of the development of ToM in ontogeny. In years 1 and 2 of the project, the PI (a philosopher) will work with a developmental psychologist to conduct a series of pioneering studies to illuminate the developmental relationship between complement clause syntax mastery and the ability to represent what others know. By using, for the first time, both verbal and non-verbal paradigms to study the development of children's mastery of embedded, hierarchically structured complement clause forms, we will generate new knowledge of the cognitive mechanisms that support the development of children's mindreading and language. In years 3 and 4 of the project, the PI will work with a linguist to shed new light on the emergence of complement clause syntax in human history. We will develop a new account of the phylogenetic emergence in humans of a cognitive architecture that allows us, but not our great ape cousins, to use syntactically structured language. Subsequently we will use comparisons of existing languages to develop an account of the cultural evolution of complement-clause like syntax in natural languages. These subprojects will combine to give an account of the cultural origins of the ability to use language to represent others' perspectives on the world. We will show how linguistic tools for ToM can be created and learned through processes of communicative interaction, and describe the new representational tools with which they imbue speakers. By showing that uniquely human cognitive traits emerge through communication, we will demonstrate the fundamentally social foundations of human thought. Subsequently we will use our findings to develop educational tools to support children's learning.

为什么人类而不是猿能习得语言？根据一种标准的观点(Tomasello 2008；Scott-Phillips 2014)，只有人类才能习得语言，因为我们拥有心理理论(Tom)的生物适应能力--思考他人心理状态的能力--这是类人猿所缺乏的。这些使我们能够采取行动，并归因于‘格赖斯’(Grice 1957)的交际意图，这些意图是自然语言发展所必需的。由于类人猿缺乏汤姆，它们既不能归因于交际意图，也不能习得语言。对于标准观点来说，Gricean人交流所需的TOM似乎只有在孩子四岁左右掌握了某些自然语言形式--真实补语从句--之后才会发展起来。如果格里斯语交流所需要的思维本身是依赖于语言的，那么它就不能解释儿童的语言习得。由于新的经验数据(Krupenye&Kano，2017)也表明类人猿的心理理论与言语前婴儿的心理理论相似，标准的观点没有解释类人猿的语言缺失。为了解开这些解释之谜，交际思维项目将对心理理论、语言和交流之间的关系进行新的解释。在PI之前的工作的基础上，该项目将确立人类和类人猿之间的关键社会认知差异是文化学习的，而不是生物遗传的。该工作表明，婴儿和类人猿都可以从事社会认知方面要求不高的最小形式的沟通。它们的出现是因为人类，而不是猿，可以使用句法结构的话语进行交流，也因为在这种能力的支持下，几代语言使用者已经开发出语言工具，用于对精神状态进行理论推导。因此，不是汤姆解释了语言的发展，而是句法和语言的文化演变解释了汤姆的发展。孩子们通过对话和讲故事的文化实践，学习在个体发育中使用这些工具，从而获得思考思维的新工具。交际性思维将为语言的进化发展提供新的解释，并在个体发生学中解释TOM的发展。在项目的第一年和第二年，PI(一位哲学家)将与一位发展心理学家合作进行一系列开创性的研究，以阐明补语从句句法掌握和表达他人所知的能力之间的发展关系。通过首次使用语言和非语言范式来研究儿童对嵌入的、有层次结构的补语从句形式的掌握的发展，我们将产生关于支持儿童思维和语言发展的认知机制的新知识。在该项目的第三年和第四年，PI将与一位语言学家合作，以揭示补语从句句法在人类历史上的出现。我们将开发一种新的解释，说明人类的认知体系结构允许我们使用句法结构的语言，但不允许我们的类人猿使用句法结构的语言。随后，我们将通过对现有语言的比较来描述补语从句类句法在自然语言中的文化演变。这些子项目将结合在一起，说明使用语言代表他人对世界的看法的能力的文化渊源。我们将展示如何通过交际互动的过程来创建和学习TOM的语言工具，并描述它们向说话者灌输的新的表征工具。通过展示人类独特的认知特征通过交流产生，我们将展示人类思维的根本社会基础。随后，我们将利用我们的发现来开发支持儿童学习的教育工具。