The Origins and Evolution of Language | Michael Corballis | TEDxAuckland

Nearly everybody can communicate, and most do so through some form of language, and yet the question of where language came from is one of the most difficult questions in science. Psychologist and author, Michael Corballis explores the many theories of language's origins, including his own, and details how language and communication have continued to evolve, from primates' use of gestures, to the advent of communicative technologies. Michael Corballis, emeritus professor at the Department of Psychology at The University of Auckland is one of the foremost global experts on the evolution of human language.

The son of a sheep farmer from Marton, Michael’s long and decorated academic career has seen his studies of the brain and what it is to be human earn him New Zealand’s top science prize, The Rutherford Medal.

[malcolmbryant]

I think one advantage of spoken over gestural communication is that it doesn't depend on daylight so can allow communication at night and -- when vision is obscured by surroundings -- at a distance.

[clintluna]

Love how he comments "[this is my important to note what others believe]"

[eslsupport]

"from the wagging of tongues to the wiggling of thumbs" - great quote, thanks!

[mathman]

Corballis seems to be talking about "Communication, " not what Chomsky calls "Language". Chomsky points out that Language (a modular faculty of the mind) can be used for communication, but it is something deeper, it's the ability to create an infinite variety of abstract structures (generative grammar) representing thoughts, from finite means (finite set of words or, basically, the alphabet).-- these structures can be mapped onto the sensory/motor apparatus (speech, gestures, signing, writing etc) in a variety of ways, but that's separate from the underlying nature of Language. Chomsky thinks it happened all at once because he thinks it's based on the ability to go from a finite system to an infinite system, which in logic and mathematics can happen once you can combine any two things into a new entity (merge), which is not an incremental process: once you can go from 2 to infinity you can go from 7 to infinity -- once you get an "successor function" there is no reason to think it would stop at, say, 7 -- so, boom, once you get it, you get the whole enchilada, no half-ways. This simple ability is what Chomsky thinks is the root of Language ability in humans. 50, 000 years ago humans could not do that, and then someone was suddenly able, which gave them enhanced planning and thinking capability etc. Chomsky also emphasizes that Language is mostly internal/self talk -- it goes on in our minds continuously -- that's one of the reasons he thinks it has nothing to do with communication, at least initially -- it has everything to do with thinking, and ultimately with the subconscious.

[macdougdoug]

The musical quality of vocalisation (intonation, rythme) also participates in communication - this obviously also contributed greatly to spoken language

[rogersledz]

Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!

[limemason]

This is exactly what I was wondering about; Origins and evolution of language. Thanks Michael Corballis!

[dannydoj]

Onamatapoeic theory which has a mimetic foundation, would argue that just as early animals can vocalise by different calls, early humans identified things by the sounds they made. The Australian Aboriginal word in Nyungar for a whilly wagtail is djiti djiti which mimics the sound of that bird. It would be easy to construct a communication system and then a language from identifying the sounds which things and persons made or the sounds the subject heard and interpreted according to their hearing capacity.

[andreasandreotti]

The best observation by Michael Corballis was that of the two phases of bipedalism in order to free our hands and be able to comunicate by gestures and then the second phase of developing articulation with our mouth and tounge in order to free our hands and use them to create while communicating. This observation is very enlighting for understanding the evolution of language. Modern genetics have revealed that there is agene or probably more genes in the human genom that makes it possible to develop a language. It has been proved that disorder in this gene has made people unable to communicate or develop a language!

[angusmacintyre]

"One of them has died you'll notice" I've never seen a dad joke in academia before

[earlarchibaldcampbellofarg]

I’m here because I wanted to discuss the origins of Latin. I began with Scotland, then to Galicia, Rome, Vedic influences, the Yamnaya, the proto-Indic-Europeans of the steppes, then to the Fertile Crescent and finally to the origin of language itself. It’s difficult to discuss anything without knowing it’s origin.

[anton-scottgoustin]

Professor Corballis is not only tackling the most mysterious problem in biology, he is coming up with proposals (such as gesturing) that are TESTABLE through the study of extant apes.

[kbck]

Given that language left no physical trace until the invention of writing, I think it makes sense that archaeologists use art, decorative shells, pigments, and stone tools which are more carefully worked than they need to be for mere utility, all of which indicate symbolic thought, as proxies for the probable timing of the origin of language. No art or art materials as such have been found that are more than about 100, 000 years old. I find this more telling than this speaker's speculations about bipedalism's connection to language.

[davidjames]

Thank you Michael Corballis..very very a summation so appreciated so much..onward with ideas and references etc etc ad infinit.. .. .. .. until we pop or fizzle

[sprihajain]

I think one of the reasons why language was became more verbal is perhaps in order to be able to communicate and coordinate while doing other things and tasks like hunting etc, as said in the lecture. You wouldn’t want to talk with your hands when a predator is in front of you.

[eslsupport]

freeing up of the hands as a spur to language is a very interesting and novel concept

[timtech]

There is a difference between the mental capacity for language and the externalized language, which could be multimodal such as vocal or gestural.

[mauricejohnson]

From sign language and facial expressions evolution would favour those that became good at communicating with voice playing a part. Those that were expressive in all these would be leaders and would bind the tribe together and improve their chances in hunting and war..

[jeffreywatts]

“...emptied our minds into our communication systems “. That is becoming increasingly significant

[brooklyna]

The saddest part about this lecture is he didn't even do his homework enough to present where the evolution of the human larynx, pharynx and hyoid bone fits into this. The human version of these organs gives humans a higher likelihood of choking than the great apes but it also allows humans to speak. The human ear also has peculiarities that indicate evolutionary trade-offs were made. When that change in evolution happened is key to his entire argument.