Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Collier, Katie
• Bickel, Balthasar
• van Schaik, Carel P.
• Manser, Marta B.
• Townsend, Simon W.

Titel

Language evolution: syntax before phonology?

Ist Teil von

• Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences, 2014-08, Vol.281 (1788), p.20140263-20140263

Ort / Verlag

England: The Royal Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Phonology and syntax represent two layers of sound combination central to language's expressive power. Comparative animal studies represent one approach to understand the origins of these combinatorial layers. Traditionally, phonology, where meaningless sounds form words, has been considered a simpler combination than syntax, and thus should be more common in animals. A linguistically informed review of animal call sequences demonstrates that phonology in animal vocal systems is rare, whereas syntax is more widespread. In the light of this and the absence of phonology in some languages, we hypothesize that syntax, present in all languages, evolved before phonology.