Young children spontaneously recreate core properties of language in a new modality
Young children spontaneously recreate core properties of language in a new modality
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1904871116
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发表时间：
2019-12-17
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Tomasello, Michael
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Bohn, Manuel;Kachel, Gregor;Tomasello, Michael
世界上6000多种自然语言是如何出现的，人们大多不得而知。然而，最近在一个社区聚集的聋人中出现了新的手语，为语言进化的动态提供了洞察力。然而，记录这些语言的出现主要包括研究最终产品；没有直接观察到特殊手语转化为结构化交流系统的过程。在这里，我们展示了幼儿如何创造新的交流系统，在不到30分钟的时间内展示自然语言的核心特征。在受控的环境中，我们阻止了使用口语的可能性。为了传达包括抽象概念在内的新信息，儿童的两个孩子自发地创造了新的手势。随着使用的过度，这些标志变得越来越武断和常规化。当面对交流更复杂含义的需要时，孩子们开始以语法的方式组织他们的手势。结合以前的工作，这些结果表明，儿童拥有必要的基本技能，不仅可以获得一种自然语言，还可以自发地创造一种新的语言。儿童创造这些结构化系统的速度对语言进化的理论有着深远的影响，这个过程通常被认为跨越了许多代人，如果不是几千年的话。
How the world's 6,000+ natural languages have arisen is mostly unknown. Yet, new sign languages have emerged recently among deaf people brought together in a community, offering insights into the dynamics of language evolution. However, documenting the emergence of these languages has mostly consisted of studying the end product; the process by which ad hoc signs are transformed into a structured communication system has not been directly observed. Here we show how young children create new communication systems that exhibit core features of natural languages in less than 30 min. In a controlled setting, we blocked the possibility of using spoken language. In order to communicate novel messages, including abstract concepts, dyads of children spontaneously created novel gestural signs. Over usage, these signs became increasingly arbitrary and conventionalized. When confronted with the need to communicate more complex meanings, children began to grammatically structure their gestures. Together with previous work, these results suggest that children have the basic skills necessary, not only to acquire a natural language, but also to spontaneously create a new one. The speed with which children create these structured systems has profound implications for theorizing about language evolution, a process which is generally thought to span across many generations, if not millennia.