Evolution of communication systems : a comparative approach / edited by D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

I. INTRODUCTION -- Theoretical and methodological tools for comparison and evolutionary modeling of communication systems / D. Kimbrough Oller, Ulrike Griebel -- II. PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES: CONCEPTIONS AND FOUNDATIONS -- On reading signs: some differences between us and the others / Ruth Garrett Millikan -- Primitive content, translation, and the emergence of meaning in animal communication / William F. Harms -- Underpinnings for a theory of communicative evolution / D. Kimbrough Oller -- III. METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENTS FOR THE FUTURE OF EVOLUTIONARY STUDY OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS -- Social and cultural learning in the evolution of human communication / Luc Steels -- The role of learning and development in language evolution: a connectionist perspective / Morten H. Christiansen, Rick Dale -- Repeated patterns in behavior and other biological phenomena / Magnus S. Magnusson -- IV. ANIMAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS: A COMPARATIVE BASIS -- Social processes in the evolution of complex cognition and communication / Charles T. Snowdon -- Human infant crying as an animal communication system: insights from an assessment/management approach / Donald H. Owings, Debra M. Zeifman -- Evolution of communication from an Avian perspective / Irene M. Pepperberg -- Cephalopod skin displays: from concealment to communication / Jennifer A. Mather -- V. PRIMITIVE COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS AND LANGUAGE -- The evolution of language: from signals to symbols to system / Chris Sinha -- Cooperation and the evolution of symbolic communication / Peter Gärdenfors -- Language, music, and laughter in evolutionary perspective / R.I.M. Dunbar -- Kin selection and "mother tongues": a neglected component in language evolution / W. Tecumseh Fitch -- Language beyond our grasp: what mirror neurons can, and cannot, do for the evolution of language / James R. Hurford -- How far is language beyond our grasp? A response to Hurford / Michael A. Arbib -- IV. CONCLUDING REMARKS -- Directions for research in comparative communication systems / D. Kimbrough Oller, Ulrike Greibel.

Print version record.

Laying foundations for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of evolution in communication systems with tools from evolutionary biology, linguistics, animal behavior, developmental psychology, philosophy, cognitive sciences, robotics, and neural network modeling.The search for origins of communication in a wide variety of species including humans is rapidly becoming a thoroughly interdisciplinary enterprise. In this volume, scientists engaged in the fields of evolutionary biology, linguistics, animal behavior, developmental psychology, philosophy, the cognitive sciences, robotics, and neural network modeling come together to explore a comparative approach to the evolution of communication systems. The comparisons range from parrot talk to squid skin displays, from human language to Aibo the robot dog's language learning, and from monkey babbling to the newborn human infant cry. The authors explore the mysterious circumstances surrounding the emergence of human language, which they propose to be intricately connected with drastic changes in human lifestyle. While it is not yet clear what the physical environmental circumstances were that fostered social changes in the hominid line, the volume offers converging evidence and theory from several lines of research suggesting that language depended upon the restructuring of ancient human social groups. The volume also offers new theoretical treatments of both primitive communication systems and human language, providing new perspectives on how to recognize both their similarities and their differences. Explorations of new technologies in robotics, neural network modeling and pattern recognition offer many opportunities to simulate and evaluate theoretical proposals. The North American and European scientists who have contributed to this volume represent a vanguard of thinking about how humanity came to have the capacity for language and how nonhumans provide a background of remarkable capabilities that help clarify the foundations of speech.

English.

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