Human Comunication and its Origins

A detailed Summary of Human Comunication and its Origins

The Origins Of Human Language And It's Relationship to Animal Communication Systems

Human language is one of the most important milestones in human history. Much of our species is dependent on the intricacies of language to generate new ideas, converse and to solve the daily challenges life throws at people, but this tool which people use to communicate is pretty mysterious. Forms of animal communication bear so little resemblance to the human language that some scientists and scholars (American Science) believe that the origin of language lies in manual gestures, not in vocalization. Since the exact location, time or place of the language origin is not known there are many theories on how ,when, or where language originated. Undoubtedly, human language development

is in some way, shape or form related to animal communication.

One theory, from Hinchingbrooke School, (www.hinchbk.cambs.sch.uk) is that men used language to warn each other in battle or during hunting, or that women were the first conversationalists working together at home using language to entertain themselves or to pass the time, Evidence for the latter theory exists as girls learn language faster than boys. (Hinch

Gesture, as a precursor to language, may go back even further, to our common origins with apes and monkeys perhaps 25 or 30 million years ago. Giacomo Rizzolatti at the University of Parma in Italy have recorded from single neurons( in the per motor cortex of monkeys) that are active when the monkeys make particular gestures of reaching. Some of these neurons, which Rizzolatti has dubbed mirror neurons, are also active when the monkeys watch a person (or another monkey) making the same gesture. These cells are in an area of the monkey cortex that appears to be related to our area where our toxins are stored, which is critically involved in the programming of human speech (The Dawn of Human Culture)

If language originated in manual gestures, why do modern-day human beings speak? Although the early hominids would have been much better preadapted to manual communication, and silent signs may have been preferred on the savanna, there were surely eventual advantages to switching to vocalization. For one thing, speech can be carried on in the dark, or when obstacles prevent communicating parties from viewing one another, or over relatively long distances. If hands and voice are to share the burden of communication , it is more efficient for syntax to carry the grammatical component , leaving the iconic component to the hands, than to have the hands carry syntax as well as meaning.(www.hinchbk.cambs.sch.uk). More importantly perhaps, speech would have freed the hands yet again, allowing our ancestors to verbally instruct others in manual arts, such as the use and manufacture of tools, while at the same time demonstrating them.

It is now considered likely that H. sapiens emerged in Africa and radiated from there sometime between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago, replacing other hominid species who had migrated earlier, including the Neanderthals in Europe and Homo erectus, who may have persisted in java until as recently as 27,000 years ago. What was it that enabled our species to prevail over these other large brained hominids whose ancestors had migrated much earlier? The most logical answer is that they endured because of superior technology, But that technology might have resulted, not fro

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Approximate Word count = 1489
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science