Primate Vocalization, Gesture, and the Evolution of Human Language

The performance of language is multimodal, not confined to speech. Review of monkey and ape communication demonstrates greater flexibility in the use of hands and body than for vocalization. Nonetheless, the gestural repertoire of any group of nonhuman primates is small compared with the vocabulary...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current anthropology 2008-12, Vol.49 (6), p.1053-1076
Main Authors: Arbib, Michael A., Liebal, Katja, Pika, Simone
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal communication
Animal vocalization
Animals
Apes
Biological Evolution
Chimpanzees
Communication
Facial Expression
Facial expressions
Gestures
Haplorhini - physiology
History of medicine and histology
Hominidae - physiology
Human evolution
Humans
Language
Linguistics
Monkeys
Oral communication
Primates
Primates - physiology
Semiotics and communication
Sign language
Signs
Speech
Verbal communication
Vocalization, Animal
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Summary:The performance of language is multimodal, not confined to speech. Review of monkey and ape communication demonstrates greater flexibility in the use of hands and body than for vocalization. Nonetheless, the gestural repertoire of any group of nonhuman primates is small compared with the vocabulary of any human language and thus, presumably, of the transitional form called protolanguage. We argue that it was the coupling of gestural communication with enhanced capacities for imitation that made possible the emergence of protosign to provide essential scaffolding for protospeech in the evolution of protolanguage. Similarly, we argue against a direct evolutionary path from nonhuman primate vocalization to human speech. The analysis refines aspects of the mirror system hypothesis on the role of the primate brain’s mirror system for manual action in evolution of the human language‐ready brain.
ISSN:0011-3204
1537-5382
DOI:10.1086/593015