The Communicative Mind

沟通的心灵

• 批准号: MR/Y011678/1
• 负责人: Richard Moore
• 金额: $ 75.9万
• 依托单位: University of Warwick
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FY011678%2F1
• 关键词: Communicative; Mind

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 (FLF1) is developing 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 establishes 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 initial four years of the Communicative Mind project (FLF1) has sought to develop new accounts of the evolution of language in phylogeny, and of the development of ToM in ontogeny. In the second part of the project (years 4-7, FLF2), we extend this work to consider the extent to which other uniquely human forms of cognition - including the ability to think of ourselves in the past and future ('mental time travel'), among other cognitive traits - are also developmentally dependent upon the cultural evolution of natural languages. These projects will combine to give an account of the origins of the ability to use language, and of the ways in which language has changed human cognition. 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, and to reconsider the appropriateness of existing standards of animal welfare, grounded in a new appreciation of the cognitive continuity between animals and humans.

为什么人类而非猿类能够获得语言？根据一个标准的观点（Tomasello 2008; Scott-Phillips 2014），只有人类才能获得语言，因为我们拥有对心理理论（“ToM”）的生物适应性-思考他人心理状态的能力-大猩猩缺乏。这些使我们能够与自然语言发展所必需的“Grice”（Grice 1957）交际意图一起行动并归因于它。由于类人猿缺乏心理理论，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，格赖斯式交流所需的心理理论似乎只有在孩子们四岁左右掌握了某些自然语言形式--“实在补语从句”句法--之后才能发展起来。如果格赖斯沟通所需的读心术本身是依赖于语言的，那么它不能有助于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语言前婴儿的心理理论相似，因此标准观点无法解释类人猿语言的缺失。为了解决这些解释性难题，交际心智项目（FLF 1）正在开发一个新的理论，语言和沟通之间的关系。PI之前的工作表明，婴儿和猿类都可以参与社会认知要求不高的“最低限度Gricean”交流形式，该项目建立了人类和猿类之间的关键社会认知差异是文化学习，而不是生物遗传。它们的出现是因为人类而非猿类可以使用句法结构化的话语进行交流，也因为在这种能力的基础上，一代又一代的语言使用者开发了语言工具来理论化心理状态。因此，不是心理理论解释了语言的发展，而是语言的句法和文化演变解释了心理理论的发展。儿童通过对话和讲故事的文化实践，在个体发育中学习使用这些工具，从而获得思考心灵的新工具。沟通思维项目（FLF 1）的最初四年致力于开发系统发育中语言进化以及个体发育中ToM发展的新解释。在该项目的第二部分（4-7年，FLF 2），我们扩展这项工作，以考虑在何种程度上其他独特的人类形式的认知-包括在过去和未来思考自己的能力（“心理时间旅行”），以及其他认知特征-也发展依赖于自然语言的文化进化。这些项目将联合收割机结合起来，解释使用语言能力的起源，以及语言改变人类认知的方式。通过展示人类独特的认知特征是通过交流产生的，我们将展示人类思想的根本社会基础。随后，我们将利用我们的研究结果来开发教育工具，以支持儿童的学习，并重新考虑现有的动物福利标准的适当性，基于对动物和人类之间认知连续性的新认识。