Introduction: Origin and Evolution of Language—An Interdisciplinary Perspective (original) (raw)
Anyone who intends to deal with the origins of language should face what critics describe as an inescapable truth: since language does not fossilize, the investigation of its origins should not rely on empirical evidence but merely have a mainly theoretical character. These considerations are at the heart of two well-known edicts-Société de Linguistique de Paris in 1866 and the Philological Society of London in 1872-that forbade all members from presenting speeches on the topic. The arguments underlying these edicts have a strong intuitive character and seem guided by a matter of common sense: it is simply not possible to rewind tape to the starting point; therefore, the origin of language is not empirically analyzable. Everything done relies on speculation, the field (very dangerous, according to many) of philosophy rather than science. Ostracism imposed by the two Societies have had negative consequences for a long time. However, the contemporary situation is radically different: for many years, research on language origins is in a revival and currently one of the most discussed topics in literature on human communicative capabilities. In addition, the essential feature of ongoing research is the clear prevalence of empirical over theoretical studies (Fitch 2017; Wacewicz and Zywiczynski 2017). Paradoxical though it may seem, the big issue today is opposite to that raised by the edicts: it is finding the key to the problem of too much available data.
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