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Gardenfors, P. (1995) Language and the Evolution of Cognition. In Lund University Cognitive Studies 41.
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Lund University Cognitive Studies -- LUCS 41 1995. ISSN 1101--8453. © 1995 by the author.
LANGUAGE AND THE
EVOLUTION OF COGNITION
Peter Gärdenfors
Lund University Cognitive Science
Kungshuset, Lundagård
S--222 22 LUND
E­mail: peter.gardenfors@fil.lu.se
Abstract: The main purpose of this article is to discuss the kinds of mental representations that are required for language to evolve. Firstly, I distinguish between cued and detached representations. A cued representation stands for something that is present in the current external situation of the representing organism, while a detached representation may stand for objects or events that are neither present in the current situation nor triggered by some recent situation. The inner environment of an agent is defined as the collection of all detached representations of the agent. The fundamental difference between signal and a symbol is that the reference of a symbol is a detached representation, while a signal refers to a cued representation. Icons also refer to detached representations, but unlike symbols, the choice of representation is not arbitrary, since an icon in some aspects resembles the thing it represents. A Gricean analysis shows that human linguistic communication presumes an advanced kind of inner environment in order to represent higher order intentions. Not only must we be able to represent the inner environment of other people (i.e., have a ``theory of mind''), but we must also represent the other individual's representation of our inner environments. In relation to the evolution of grammar, I distinguish between three levels of grammaticality in a communication system: Systems with no grammar, compositional systems, and systems with grammatical structure. Combining this tripartition with the distinction between cued and detached representations, one obtains six kinds of communication systems. Most animal signaling systems use cued representations and no grammar, but bee's dances have a ...
BibTex
@incollection{grdenfors95languageAnd,
  author={Peter Gardenfors},
  title={Language and the Evolution of Cognition},
  year={1995},
  publisher={},
  booktitle={Lund University Cognitive Studies 41},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/grdenfors95languageAnd.html}
}

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