Tokyo Lectures in Evolinguistics 2019
Abstracts

March 11
Generative grammar, cognitive linguistics, and language evolution
Koji Fujita & Kazumi Taniguchi
This lecture is designed as an introduction to generative grammar and cognitive linguistics
as theoretical backgrounds for our Evolinguistics project. We review basic concepts andideas of these frameworks with a special focus on language evolution. As it stands, thestrong opposition between GG and CL is often harmful to a better understanding of how
human language first came into being in the species (biological evolution) and developed
later in different societies (cultural evolution). We will clarify some advantages anddisadvantages of each position and discuss some possible forms of unifying their good
insights with other relevant fields to construct an integrative scenario of language
evolution. (For the most part, this lecture is given in Japanese.)
Emergent constructive approach to evolinguistics
Takashi Hashimoto
The origin of language is characterized by the biological evolution of abilities related tolanguage and communication, and the evolution of language by the structuralization andcomplexification of language knowledge as well as communication systems throughcultural evolution. In this lecture, I will introduce emergent constructive approach to theorigins and evolution of language. This approach is a methodology to analyze complex
phenomena by constructing and operating the evolutionary and emergent processes ofobjective phenomena. Two idiosyncrasies of human linguistic communication will be theprimary focus as Evolinguistics, namely, using hierarchically organized symbol sequencesin language and sharing intentions in symbolic communication. The integration of thesetwo characteristics is considered to make humans co-creative.

March 12Biological pre-adaptations to language
Kazuo Okanoya
Language divides humans from other animals. Yet, language is a property shaped byevolution. Language enables transmission and accumulation of knowledge and technology.

And these established the special niche of humans on the earth. We need to explain thediscontinuity based on the continuity of evolution. In this lecture, I consider biologicalpre-adaptations that resulted in the emergence of language, and evolutionary driving
forces that pushed the process of emergence. As pre-adaptations, I consider vocal plasticity,
behavioral segmentation, and contextual segmentation. As driving forces, I discuss sexual
selection and domestication. I will use examples from various animal behaviors, including
bird song, mice song, gibbon song, rat spatial navigation, and proto-compositional use ofcalls in some monkeys and birds. I present possible scenarios that can explain theemergence of language based on these biological considerations.
When and why language emerged
Yasuo Ihara
Language is perhaps the most conspicuous human trait that makes us consider ourselvesdifferent from all other animals. For a better understanding of the evolution of language, itis essential to narrow down possible timings for the emergence of the human language
faculty, or its functional constituents, on the history of human evolution. Also ofimportance is to specify the ecological context within which each of these functional
designs was favored by natural selection. As part of our Evolinguistics project, we havelaunched our endeavor to integrate knowledge from physical anthropology, archaeology,
primatology, and evolutionary theory to explore the historical and ecological aspects ofhuman language evolution. This lecture will outline our perspectives and recentdevelopments.
Language learning, language use, and the evolution of linguistic structure
Kenny Smith
When we look across the languages of the world, we see that they all share the same
fundamental set of structural features that give language its open-ended expressive power.
Those universal structural features of language presumably reflect properties of the way inwhich humans learn language, which may in turn be shaped by our genes. But language is
not necessarily a direct reflection of properties of individual learners: languages persist in
populations via a repeated cycle of learning and use, where learners learn a language byobserving the communicative behaviour of other individuals who learnt their language inthe same way. Languages evolve as a result of this cycle of learning and use, and are
therefore the product of a potentially complex interplay between the biases of humanlanguage learners, the communicative functions which language serves, and the ways inwhich languages are transmitted in populations. In this talk I will present a series ofexperiments, based around artificial language learning, dyadic interaction and iterated
learning paradigms, which allow us to explore the relationship between learning and use
in shaping linguistic structure; I will finish with an experimental study in non-humanprimates, which suggests that systematic structure may be an inevitable outcome of thiscycle of learning and use, rather than a reflection of uniquely human learning capacities.
What use is half a sentence? Grammar caught in the act of natural/sexual selection
Ljiljana Progovac
This lecture focuses on the evolution of grammar, advocating a gradual emergence of
hierarchical structure and transitivity, as subject not only to cultural innovation, but also tonatural/sexual selection forces. I present a precise linguistic reconstruction of the initial,proto-grammar stage, characterized as an intransitive, flat, two-slot mold, unable todistinguish subjects from objects. Even this crude grammar offers clear and substantial
communicative benefits over no grammar at all, as well as reveals, through its limits,reasons and rationale for evolving more complex grammars. The particular uses to which
this proto-grammar can be put even today (e.g. insult: cry-baby; naming: rattle-snake;proverbial wisdoms: Monkey see, monkey do; Like father, like son) reveals why thiscultural invention (of coining binary combinations) would have been highly adaptive at
the dawn of language. With the goal to shed concrete light on how biological evolution
may have begun to shape the genetic make-up that supports human language, a specificsexual selection scenario will be considered. By identifying insult (verbal aggression) as
relevant for early language evolution, this proposal also meaningfully interacts with therecent proposals regarding human self-domestication.

March 13
Social-pragmatic approach to language development
Harumi Kobayashi
We cannot look at how humans acquired language for the first time on this planet, but we
CAN look at how humans acquire language for the first time in life. Exploring language
development provides us a precious opportunity to examine possible mechanisms that
promoted emergence of language. In developmental psychology, several approaches havebeen presented to account for mechanisms of language development. In this lecture, I will
discuss three major approaches, constraint/bias approach, statistical learning approach,and social-pragmatic approach. Social-pragmatic approach focuses on humans’ ability toinfer other people’s intention and tries to explain language development as a process ofemerging skills of sharing intentionality. I will discuss the plausibility and advantages ofthe social-pragmatic approach from the viewpoint of Evolinguistics.
Of speech and birdsong: Surprising similarities in brain circuits for vocal learning
Stephanie White
Before they learn to sing, songbird nestlings, like human babies, cry for attention. Only
through hours of practice during ‘critical periods’ do they develop a song suitable forcourting mates. Language also blossoms during a critical period whose closure makes it
difficult to speak a foreign tongue. Our research focuses on the FoxP2 transcription factor
whose link to language is unprecedented: a single base mutation in the DNA-binding
domain causes a human speech disorder with a Mendelian inheritance. What we learn
about FoxP2 and other vocal-related molecules in birdsong may tell us how they affectspeech. Remarkably, the act of morning singing reduces FoxP2 levels within song control
cells of the avian striatum, along with coordinated changes in thousands of other genes.
These changes occur in young and old birds. Changes unique to young birds may underlie
critical period learning. We set out to identify how these gene co-expression patterns shiftacross the critical period boundary. In both young and old birds, we found patterns thatwere regulated by singing, >70% of which were subsequently found in human gene
modules related to autism. We then found patterns that were tightly linked to learning inyoung birds but that were lost in old birds implicating them in critical period plasticity.
Several of these learning-related genes are essential for language development. We
capitalize on the robust brain-behavior relationships in songbirds to functionally test theserelationships. Our work reinforces the convergent evolution of vocal learning systems inbirds and humans.