Differentiation between agents and patients in the putative two-word stage of language evolution

Scientific paper - Other

• Author: Petar Gabrić https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2644-194X
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; General Linguistics
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Ethnology and Anthropology; Anthropology
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: INTERDISCIPLINARY AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE; Cognitive Science (Natural, Technical, Biomedical and Healthcare, Social and Humanistic Sciences)
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: NATURAL SCIENCES; Biology; Genetics, Evolution and Phylogenetics
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: SOCIAL SCIENCES; Psychology; General Psychology

Abstract (english)

Several scholars have proposed that there was a two-word stage in the course of language evolution, in which utterances could not combine more than two words. These models agree that the putative two-word stage did not exhibit syntax. However, they disagree on whether or not there existed rules for inferring the semantic relationship between the two words expressing a compositional proposition. Focusing on semantically transitive events, I combine in the present paper language evolution models with previous empirical studies in linguistics to argue that the two-word stage was indeed governed by rules for inferring the compositional meaning of the utterance, in that (1) words were either associated with fixed (“predetermined”) semantic roles (i.e., agent, patient, predicate) or (2) there was a fixed order of semantic roles and the same words could be assigned different semantic roles in different utterances. Given the proposed existence of rules for producing and interpreting semantically compositional messages, it would appear that the putative two-word stage of language evolution did in fact exhibit syntax.

• Keywords (english): language evolution; semantic role; transitivity; cognitive evolution; semantic compositionality; word order; human evolution
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Other
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Peer review - international
• Publication version: Published version
• Journal title: Frontiers in Psychology
• Numbering: vol. 12, 684022
• BPC: 450 EUR
• e-ISSN: 1664-1078
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.684022
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:100213
• Publication: 2021-08-11
• Document URL: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.684022/full
• Type of resource: Text
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2021-07-25 21:46:26