We approach the issue of holophrasis versus compositionality in the emergence of protolanguage by analyzing the earliest combinatorial constructions in child, bonobo, and chimpanzee: messages consisting of one symbol combined with one gesture. Based on evidence from apes learning an interspecies visual communication system and children acquiring a first language, we conclude that the potential to combine two different kinds of semiotic element — deictic and representational — was fundamental to the protolanguage forming the foundation for the earliest human language. This is a form of compositionality, in that each communicative element stands for a single semantic element. The conclusion that human protolanguage was exclusively holophrastic — containing a proposition in a single word — emerges only if one considers the symbol alone, without taking into account the gesture as a second element comprising the total message.
2018. Digital Games for Animals. In Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games, ► pp. 1 ff.
Fiadotau, Mikhail
2024. Digital Games for Animals. In Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games, ► pp. 585 ff.
Uhlíř, Vilém
2018. Representational Systems in Zoosemiotics and Anthroposemiotics Part I: What Have the So-Called “Talking Animals” Taught Us about Human Language?. Linguistic Frontiers 1:1 ► pp. 14 ff.
Tanner, Joanne E. & Marcus Perlman
2017. Moving beyond ‘meaning’: Gorillas combine gestures into sequences for creative display. Language & Communication 54 ► pp. 56 ff.
Pedersen, Janni
2016. Apes in conversation: The role of the human interlocutor. Language & Communication 50 ► pp. 1 ff.
Gillespie-Lynch, Kristen, Patricia M. Greenfield, Heidi Lyn & Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
2014. Gestural and symbolic development among apes and humans: support for a multimodal theory of language evolution. Frontiers in Psychology 5
2014. How early do children understand gesture–speech combinations with iconic gestures?. Journal of Child Language 41:2 ► pp. 462 ff.
Hopkins, William D.
2013. Apes, Language, and the Brain. In Animal Models of Speech and Language Disorders, ► pp. 263 ff.
Lyn, Heidi
2012. Apes and the Evolution of Language: Taking Stock of 40 Years of Research. In The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology, ► pp. 356 ff.
Lyn, Heidi & Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
2012. The Use of Emotion Symbols in Language-Using Apes. In Emotions of Animals and Humans [The Science of the Mind, ], ► pp. 113 ff.
Lyn, Heidi, Patricia M. Greenfield & E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
2011. Semiotic combinations in Pan: A comparison of communication in a chimpanzee and two bonobos. First Language 31:3 ► pp. 300 ff.
Lyn, Heidi, Patricia M. Greenfield, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Kristen Gillespie-Lynch & William D. Hopkins
2011. Nonhuman primates do declare! A comparison of declarative symbol and gesture use in two children, two bonobos, and a chimpanzee. Language & Communication 31:1 ► pp. 63 ff.
Greenfield, Patricia M.
2009. Book review: Finding Our Tongues: Mothers, Infants, and the Origins of Language. American Journal of Human Biology 21:6 ► pp. 858 ff.
Greenfield, Patricia M. & Kristen Gillespie-Lynch
2008. Intersubjectivity evolved to fit the brain, but grammar co-evolved with the brain. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31:5 ► pp. 523 ff.
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