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SUMMARY:CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19 - Title: How Language Began: A Peircean 
 Approach to Language Evolution - Prof Daniel Everett (Bentley University)
DTSTART:20200402T153000Z
DTEND:20200402T170000Z
UID:TALK138550@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Julia Heine
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: In this talk I will discuss on-going work on the sem
 eiotic origins of human language\, based on archaeological evidence on Hom
 o erectus culture\, especially the ergology of this hominin species. I wil
 l argue that the core of human language is the productive\, cultural gener
 ation of symbols. While all animals use signs - mainly indexes and icons -
  humans\, due to their larger brains - are the most effective generators o
 f symbols. The number and complexity of human symbols entails the “unive
 rsal grammar” and “speculative grammars” of the 13th century Modista
 e and the 19th/20th century work of C.S. Peirce\, including important logi
 cal principles\, e.g. Peirce’s “reduction theorem” which predicts th
 at no predicate in any language can have more than three basic arguments (
 i.e. more than a valency of 3 - without combining additional predicates). 
 The focus will be on the archaeological record\, however\, and the strong 
 evidence that erectus’s brain was modern in most essential respects\, as
  shown by their symbolization in tool construction\, their ocean travels\,
  and their settlement patterns. One thesis of this work is that no special
  “language organ” is or was required for language to emerge and that\,
  as Everett (2012\, 2017\, and 2018) argue\, language is a cultural-cognit
 ive tool that is not directly genetic\, but an invented cultural tool\, un
 derwritten by the human brain’s general cognitive power.\n\n\n
LOCATION:English Faculty Building\, second floor\, SR24
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