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Abstract

The last quarter of the 20th century saw a surge in research in the evolution of language, and this activity continues to grow and extend its influence in the present century. This article is a personal review of some conclusions that can be deemed to have been established in that period. Many of these modern conclusions had ancient precursors as speculative hypotheses with little empirical backing. Modern empirical research in a range of fields has driven foundations deeper, and careful theoretical work has begun to weave a more consistent network of ideas across disciplines. Many mysteries remain, but some clear outlines of the evolutionary bases of humans? most distinctive capacity have begun to emerge. Often the clearer outlines have revealed more complex problems than was vaguely suspected earlier. Three propositions have been selected here, and each will be briefly discussed in a separate section. The three propositions are: 'Language' is not a single monolithic behaviour; Animals have rich conceptual systems; Primates are not necessarily the closest to human-like capacities.

@article{hurford06recentDevelopmentsEvoLang,
  author={J. Hurford},
  title={Recent Developments in the Evolution of Language},
  journal={Cognitive Systems},
  year={2006},
  volume={7},
  number={1},
  pages={23-32},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford06recentDevelopmentsEvoLang.html}
}