Why don’t any other animals speak at all?
It is the Harry mystery that trips up the continuitarians. They were right when they said that we are an extension of our primate ancestors, but they failed to notice that the difference between our ancestors and us goes far beyond speech. Speech is the essential instrument for holding human communities together, but there is more to being human than using language.
A wall displays a triangle whose corners are labeled “speaker,” “listener,” and “topic.” Arrows point between speaker and listener, and separate arrows point from speaker and listener to topic.
The speech triangle summarizes the community structure that distinguishes human communication. Machines and animals communicate to manipulate one another; two biologists, Richard Dawkins and John Krebs, have even written that animal communication is so manipulative and controlling, so unlike human communication, that they are “tempted to abandon the word communication altogether.” Humans communicate to pilot attention to some topic of joint interest. Apes have a two-way communication structure. To get another’s attention, a chimpanzee might slap the ground. Other apes naturally look toward the unexpected noise, and the first ape can then make a begging gesture or give a look of intimidation. This behavior is typical of procedural communication. The first step, the slap, is followed by a second step, and both steps are focused on manipulating the other.
Humans can beg and intimidate as well, but they can also do things that apes do not do, by using the speech triangle. Its three-sided structure supports a communicative function unknown elsewhere in the animal world: mutual consideration of a topic. When we think with words, we think about something: the topic. When we converse with others, we have a topic in mind even if it keeps changing as the conversation rambles on. The kind of communal knowledge created through the exploration of a topic is the fundamental gift of language. The formal study of language usually concentrates on the abstract elements (notably syntax and symbols) that organize sentences, so linguists rarely worry about how these elements originate. But a look into speech origins quickly shows that the keystone supporting the whole triangle is our ability to join with one another in considering a topic.
Psychologist/anthropologist Michael Tomasello describes an example of the difference between human helpfulness and the rugged individualism of apes:
. . . when a whimpering chimpanzee child is searching for her mother, it is almost certain that all the other chimpanzees in the immediate area know this. But if some nearby female knows where the mother is, she will not tell the searching child, even though she is perfectly capable of extending her arm in a kind of pointing gesture. She will not tell the child because her communicative motives simply do not include informing others of things helpfully.
Why aren’t chimpanzees motivated to help? There is a straightforward, Darwinian explanation for the ape’s mum’s-the-word behavior. Individuals don’t help non-kin. There is nothing in it, no survival or reproductive advantage, for the informed adults to help the whimpering child of another. And yet humans typically do help out whimpering children, even if the child is a stranger. An adult, happening upon a solitary, unknown, whimpering child, is very likely to stop and ask what is wrong, take charge, and stay with the child until the problem is resolved. This activity strikes us as perfectly natural, normal behavior, even though it is contrary to so many practices of other animals.
No, this tour is not about to challenge the theory of evolution, but it does say we need a good evolutionary account of how a species of ape with no motive to assist others outside the family became a species that takes such group helping for granted. How is it that our old behavior—ape behavior—seems shocking? Six million years ago, apes already had the physical ability and the brains to offer some help to one another, yet they did not help. The first part of the rise of speech, therefore, was the evolution of the speech triangle and a willingness to share what you perceive.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
