Wolfgang Wildgen The Evolution of Meaning and Discourse

Cognitive Science Case Western Reserve University, 3rd of October 2007

Contents

1. Introduction: Catastrophic transitions in the evolution of life 2.

From image to concept: Thom’s concepts of “salency” and “pregnance” 3. An illustrative fragment of catastrophe theoretic semantics 3.1 Changes in a quality space 3.2 The archetype of transfer and trivalent scenarios 4. From tool-manufacturing to propositional semantics 4.1 Instrumentality in higher mammals and man 4.2 Is tool-making a pragmatic source of propositional semantics?

5. The evolution of discourse 5.1 From ecological space to social pragmatics 5.2 From social pragmatics to discourse 5.3 A possible hierarchy of discourse functions 6. Consequences for an evolutionary grammar 2

Introduction

  Language, the exchange of meaningful messages, the systematic reference to a world beyond ourselves, the reflection on our use of language is a dramatic step beyond the behavior and the psychic states of other creatures and beyond the material world. It was therefore a major challenge for evolutionary thinking first during the controversies of the 18th century (Condillac, Rousseau, Diderot, Herder), later for Darwin and his followers. The central problem concerns the apparent perfection of human language and the difficulty to explain preparatory stages and their adaptive value.

I will start with a parallel problem due to perfection and the lack of transition which concerns a much earlier step in evolution: the evolution of the eye during the so-called Cambrian revolution some 500 my ago (cf. Park, 2005). 3

  Charles Darwin in the

Origin of Species

(1859) treated the eye under the heading ORGANS OF EXTREME PERFECTION AND COMPLICATION. He admits that the idea that it has been created by natural selection is “absurd to the highest degree”.

The Cambrian revolution affected only six out of 38 phyla, but 95% of multicellular animals existing today have eyes. Therefore, it is probably the most decisive evolutionary step in the last billion years. Vision, i.e., the faculty to form images of selected aspects of the environment, triggered on arms-race which shaped bodies, behaviors, enhanced the control and perception of motion (a visually guided attack or escape) and created the world of colors we experience. In a sense, it created a world of meanings centered in the brains of animals (a kind of virtual reality) 4

Figure 1: The rough evolution of receptors for different sense organs in geological time (graphics from Parker, 2005)

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I will argue in the next section that the origin of language (roughly 2 my BP) produced a comparable catastrophic jump which could become the basis of evolutionary processes (losses and gains) in the future (the next millions of years).

In the case of vision two subfields are coordinated and cannot be reduced to one another: 1.

2.

The physics of light/refraction/absorption, etc.

The psychophysics of perception and the neurodynamics of image formation, storage and imagination.

I will argue that with the emergence of language a third, non reducible domain is added, cultural significance and meaning. Therefore, any theory of language has to consider at least three levels and the context of their emergence.

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1.

2.

The physics of light: emergence shortly after the Big Bang with the appearance of stars (other physical fields relevant for perception follow later, thus sound fields for hearing or chemical fields for smell and taste).

Cf. Guth’s “inflationary universe”. The inflationary stage is followed by a dark age and later the creation of stars which emit light.

The (neuro)psychology of image-formation: emergence in the Cambrian revolution; 500 my BP (later auditory gestalts rival with visual ones for dominance) 3.

The cultural significance of sign-behavior and meaningful social communication: emergence 2 my BP (probably both in the auditory and the visual mode; the auditory becomes dominant in humans).

The architecture of a theory of language has to consider these levels. 7

From image to concept

  The Cambrian revolution created an image making “machine” which became the motor of evolutionary diversity and which controlled body shapes, color displays, camouflage, mimicry, pursuit and escape behaviors, social identification, and social cooperation. In a sense, the image-machine became the functional heart of higher organized animals and it is still at the heart of human behavior and culture.

One may distinguish two factors in these dynamics, one is linked to the perceptual organ and neuronal centers (e.g., the eye, the visual pathway, area 7 and its projections), the other is linked to selectional forces, such as feeding, hunting prey, protection against predators, and sexual reproduction. René Thom (1991/2003) called these two ”forms”: salency (sensory apparatus) and pregnancy (biological needs). The major criteria of distinction are: 8

 Thom compares subjective pregnancies found in animals (and man) with objective pregnancies (forces) in nature. Linguistic meaning (concepts) which are necessary to form propositions by predication are at a point of convergence between biological pregnancies, natural forces, motion patterns and geometric forms 9

objective free isotropic propagation diffusion

temperature sound chemical diffusion

controlled propagation constrained propagation no propagation

physical fields e.g. light state transitions motion of solid bodies phonetic gestalts geometrical forms

subjective biological pregnances odor, taste, touch color

valence patterns concepts: words and syntax

written words

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The Lower Paleolithic revolution

   In humans and mainly in speaking humans this strict dependency on biological pregnancies disappears and the question is:

How did the propagation of meaning become to a large extent independent from basic survival mechanisms?

As we assume that this transition was prepared in the stage of Homo erectus (2 my BP), biologically fixed with the speciation of Homo sapiens (ca. 300.000 y BP) and fully unfolded since the populations of cave painters (ca. 40.000 y BP), we can call it the (Lower)

Paleolithic revolution

.

This does not mean that the creation of meaning lost its biological significance but the Rubicon between a biologically controlled meaning propagation and a cultural control and social embedding of meaning has been crossed in this period (2 my-40.000 y BP). 11

The catastrophic transition to language

Non-language Language Communicative capacities 2 my BP to 40.000 y BP Evolutionary time scale since the Cambrian revolution 12

Thom’s conjecture

  René Thom conjectured that the lexico-syntactic valences described by Tesnière (1959) or the case-frames enumerated by Fillmore (1968) are basically a reflection of restrictions imposed on natural processes. This hypothesis underlies catastrophe theoretic semantics (cf. Wildgen, 1982). In semiotic terms, the relational architecture underlying language has a foundation in natural laws, or more provocatively, the archetypical architecture of linguistic utterances (sentences) is rooted in natural laws, it is an icon of the real world in which human beings live. As a corollary this explains why humans endowed with language are able to discover natural laws, use them for technology and control the ambient world which for all other beings, including non-human hominids, is opaque and just an all-mighty force which beings must endure passively. 13

An illustrative fragment of catastrophe theoretic semantics

 The valence pattern is globally described as a conflict of “pregances” in Thom (1978c: 76). If these conflicts are stripped off their specific intentional and real-life content, a formal topologico-dynamic pattern is left, which can be matched against the hierarchy of elementary catastrophes in Thom (1972). These archetypes (cf. for elaborations, Wildgen, 1982) are pure theoretical entities, which allow the formulation of a family of interesting hypotheses. Like the theoretical terms used in physics, they formulate a program of empirical research, such that some of the hypotheses formulated in these terms may be elaborated or falsified (cf. Wildgen, 1994, for relevant elaborations and corrections of the theoretical conjectures generated by Thom).

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(a) to distort, to bend (b) to clean (German: verbiegen) qualitative scale: scales + _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ straight twisted, crooked ( German: reinigen) qualitative scale: - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + dirty clean, neat If we assume a linear space with two poles we can describe the process contained in the two verbs above in the way shown in Figure 4. The curved surface above describes the states of stability and instability (the attractors and the repellors of the system). The process makes a catastrophic jump from one partial surface to another (e.g. from 'dirty' to 'clean').

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The archetype of transfer and trivalent scenarios

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 

Evolutionary explanation of Thom’s conjecture

Thom’s assumption is on one side tempting, because it could provide a much deeper foundation of linguistics than any current theory, but on the other side it cannot explain how human language could become a mirror of natural processes. In Wildgen (2004) I proposed a transition mediated by tool making and early technologies. In fact, language has not emerged in isolation, it rather came together with other “symbolic forms” (a term coined by Cassirer) like myth (ritual), art and technology. Lithic technologies used since more than 2 my could stand for a first stage (possibly in the context of rituals, an early proto-language and body-painting). Insofar as such technologies asked for a precise control of natural forces, human symbolic behavior was at the start parallel to a kind of “scientific” insight and corresponding conceptual elaborations.

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From tool-manufacturing to propositional semantics

 In the evolutionary line of primates, tool-use is reported both for new world apes and old world apes. The first show only the behavior of throwing objects (from above down to the bottom of trees) in attack and defense, whereas the second show a higher diversity of tool uses (cf. Becker, 1993: 79-110). Rather sophisticated tool-use with beginning tool modifying is reported by Boesch (1993), who describes the nut-cracking behavior of wild chimpanzees of the Taï National Park (Côte d’Ivoire). The animals transport both nuts and hammers to roots, which are used as anvil. As stone hammers are rare and necessary to crack very hard nuts (Panda oleosa), they are transported and preserved. Wooden hammers may be shortened using fallen branches until they fit. Infants must learn the use of tools and different ways of passing on the proper method of use have been observed:

stimulation

,

facilitation

, and

active teaching

. 18

Is tool-making a source of propositional semantics?

Basic script of tool manufacturing: 1.

2.

Seeking for materials.

Using both hands, such that one hand fixes the material, which has to be shaped, and the other controls a tool used for shaping. 3.

The tool is adapted to specific contexts; it becomes the blade of a knife, the point of an arrow, the body of an ax, etc., or it is used to perform one phase of a process, e.g., cleaning the fur of an animal; the fur is already the result of a longer goal oriented process beginning with the hunting of the animal. The mastering of tool-production allows the production of cultural objects and art; these may become objects of value. Elaborated tools and objects of art show geometrical abstraction and iconicity.

4.

A further stage produces pictures (signs) of the hand, the “instrument” which shapes tools.

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Simple pebble tools from the Olduwan-gorge (around 2 my BP) Refined and small tools from the Magdalenian-culture (around 16.000 y. BP) 20

The evolution of discourse

The pragmatics of action with hands establishes a micro-level of emerging functions which elaborate the relation between cause and effect.

At the macro-level human housing and house-building is a domain where structures emerge, which can be reorganized in the shape of space-oriented communication, linguistic orientation in space and memory of narrative contents related to space.

The background of these processes is given by the ecological/situational context. Some objects or context features become

culturally significant

. These are mainly:  places (of living, of chase, etc.),   tools and the techniques of their use, motion patterns, gestures, gestured signs, dance, The relevance of places (in space and time), of spatial orientation and categorization are of primordial importance for the semantics of natural languages as the tradition of localistic theories shows.

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  Already in the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees (LCA), contextual space acts as an external memory of affordances, which is indexically given by paths (of social locomotion and predator/prey locomotion), harvesting locations (and times), dangerous locations, places for sleep, courtship, housing, frontiers of territories, etc. These indexically loaded areas and places function like a catalyst of social action, insofar as they can coordinate social perception and action. As soon as space is more specifically organized in relation to cognition and social use, it unfolds in a cycle of social “investment”. Architecture and the spatial organization of a village (or later a town) are clear examples. This level is autocatalytic insofar as the spatial organization becomes itself a cyclic structure in which different functions cooperate. 22

Semiotically invested subspaces

housing fire place public space tool making myth. space ritual outside chase, harvest

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From social pragmatics to discourse

  Tool manufacturing, body art and rituals may be either preadaptations enabling the emergence of language or already be parallel and fostered by a protolanguage. Due to the non permanent nature of spoken language, we have no chance to check which of the alternatives is valid. The fact that language usage is primarily a social communicative phenomenon encourages the search for a cultural/social origin of language and discourse. In this perspective it is not predication or propositional structure, but discursive processing in social contexts which must be foregrounded. Therefore, one must ask, if discourse functions like narrative, descriptive, argumentative or ritual discourse had a survival value in early human populations (before hominisation), which differs sharply from the survival patterns in chimpanzees and other primates which did not evolve a linguistic capacity.

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A possible hierarchy of discourse functions

  Classical speech-act theories placed the proposition (and its elocution) at the center and added illocution and perlocution. The perlocution (the impact on the audience) and its social effects are neglected. The relation of language use to its contextual evaluation and thus to its selective relevance is excluded. An evolutionary account must start from perlocutionary effects, like: A persuades / convinces B (via an utterance), A evokes positive feelings / gets help /in/by B (via an utterance); A contributes verbally to the solution of a problem / teaches / helps to find a solution (via an utterance).

If the perlocutionary effect is increasing the fitness of the group, such a feature (and the underlying faculty) can be selected. As no other human species with lesser communicative faculties exists, it is impossible to test the selective advantage our species got and why. The only approach which is feasible concerns the analysis of actual discursive effects. 25

1.

2.

If the scout can describe the place and number of a herd of bison accurately, the group will follow him and bring food to the clan, which will not starve and thus survive.

If the experienced warrior can give a good story for his undertakings others will join a new enterprise and learn from his experience how to overcome the enemy.

3.

If the perpetrator can defend his cause effectively he will not be expelled or killed.

These examples show three different discourse functions:

descriptive, narrative and argumentative

.

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Discourse as basic achievement

My hypothesis is that rhetoric (and possibly poetic) functions stood at the beginning when discourse emerged. I will only discuss he narrative function in the folowing.

The central concern in the narrative  is: How can a sequence of events/actions be segmented/compressed into sentences?  How are these arranged such that not only the temporal sequence can be derived but also spatial itineraries and causal effects can be imagined or reproduced? The problem concerns a mapping of time, space and cause/force in a text such that an easy and reliable understanding by the audience is made possible. 27

Evaluative and relevance functions

This is, however, not sufficient. In each narrative text, evaluative and relevance assigning processes have to be controlled. As Labov (1972) has shown, the Abstract/Title must sketch the relevance of the story which will be told, the Climax separates the Complication and the Result and spans an arch of interest for the audience. In many cases, self-evaluative information is distributed over the story, etc. Thus even simple stories contain two components:  Time/space/force mappings  A socio-evaluative profile or a relevance component in which social values are exchanged (respecting the audience and self-advertisement) 28

   These factors point into the direction of a twofold functionality of (narrative) discourse. It has a referential function (mapping a sequence of events/actions) and a socio-evaluative function. In the emergence of (narrative) discourse, two different selective processes must have cooperated. If in small talk the socio evaluative component dominates, this does not mean (as Dunbar suggests) that discourse emerged from social contact (grooming).

The two factors have probably different evolutionary histories. The referential function elaborates cognitive functions already developed since the Cambrian revolution (helped by bigger brain, which was made possible by high energy food and allowed for the construction of sophisticated tools). A further function is based on the evolution of social groups and their organization and more specifically of cooperative/competitive processes in dense social networks. The key to the solution, the social organization of human populations 300.000 y ago and that of neighboring human species in competition with them is not accessible empirically. 29

  

Consequences for an evolutionary grammar

A grammar is called

evolutionary

, if its architecture reflects the order in which important linguistic features emerged and respects the natural (causal) relations between components which were selected at different stages (e.g., 2 my, 500.000 y, 100.000 y, 50.000 y, 5.000 y BP).

In conclusion of the facts and hypotheses exposed in this lecture, a grammar should first consider the cognitive basics, i.e., the mapping of space, time, force (cause) into a language. Secondly, it should pay attention to discourse organization in relation to social functions of language. 30

Self-organization and the arbitrariness of languages

   The basic factors which shaped human language led to numberless but functionally equivalent individual languages/dialects/jargons/repertoires, etc. This feature was called the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign by Ferdinand de Saussure. In reality it is only the effect of multiple processes of self organization which fulfill the basic cognitive and social functions. As the set of concepts grows, and at the same pace the length of utterances, the fine-grained structure of languages is only grossly constrained by the basic functions. Internal measures of economy and optimality select one or several solutions and by a law of conservation the system stops the search for other solutions. The differences between languages are the out-come of a process weakly constrained by the basic functions and selected by mechanisms of self-organization, which allow for many equivalent solutions.

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Some bibliographical hints

Labov, William, 1972. The Transformation of Experience in Narrative Syntax, chapter 9 of: Labov, W., Language in the Inner City. Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 354-396.

Parker, Andrew, 2005. Seven Deadly Colours. The Genius of Nature’s Palette and How it Eluded Darwin, Free Press, London.

Thom, René, 1990. Semiophysics : a sketch, Addison-Wesley, Redwood City, Calif Wildgen, Wolfgang, 1982. Catastrophe Theoretic Semantics. An Elaboration and Application of René Thom’s Theory, Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.

Wildgen, Wolfgang, 1994. Process, Image, and Meaning. A Realistic Model of the Meanings of Sentences and Narrative Texts, Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.

Wildgen, Wolfgang, 2004a. The Evolution of Human Languages. Scenarios, Principles, and Cultural Dynamics, Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.

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