Article published in:
Holophrasis vs Compositionality in the Emergence of ProtolanguageEdited by Michael A. Arbib and Derek Bickerton
[Interaction Studies 9:1] 2008
► pp. 51–65
From metonymy to syntax in the communication of events
Jean-Louis Dessalles | TELECOM ParisTech
A modular analysis of spontaneous language use provides support for the existence of an identifiable step in language evolution, protolanguage. Our suggestion is that a grammarless form of expression would have evolved to signal unexpected events, a behavior still prevalent in our species. Words could not be so specific as to refer to whole, non-recurring, situations. They referred to elements such as objects or locations, and the communicated event was inferred metonymically. Compositionality was achieved, without syntax, through multi-metonymy, as words referring to elements of the same situation were concatenated into proto-utterances.
Keywords: metonymy, relevance, compositionality, protolanguage, pragmatics, evolution
Published online: 07 March 2008
https://doi.org/10.1075/is.9.1.05des
https://doi.org/10.1075/is.9.1.05des
Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
Arbib, Michael A., Brad Gasser & Victor Barrès
Luuk, Erkki & Hendrik Luuk
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