Theory of language and semioticsFaculty of language and literature The Semiotic Hypercycle and the Run-Away Process of Linguistic (Symbolic) Evolution.

Theory of language and semiotics Faculty of language and literature

The Semiotic Hypercycle and the Run-Away Process of Linguistic

(Symbolic) EvolutionContribution to the Cradle of Language

Conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 7 – 10 Nov 2006

Wolfgang Wildgen

http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/homepages/homepagebyid.asp?id=34

Theory of language and semiotics Faculty of Language and Literature

Wolfgang Wildgen2

• 1INTRODUCTION• 2 THE HYPERCYCLE• 3 THE DYNAMICS INHERENT IN THE SIGN

(Based on Peirce)• 4 BASIC FUNCTIONS OF SIGNS (Based on

Bühler)

• 5SOME LEVELS OF THE EMERGENCE OF GRAMMAR

• 6 CONCLUSIONS• Further aspects (Cassirer)


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Introduction Two major periods of rapid emergence are plausible:

1. The first is linked to the emergence of lithic technology (Homo habilis) and to the protospecies which was later distributed in Africa, Asia and Europe: Homo erectus (and its African variant Homo ergaster). One can postulate that the core of this evolution took place around 2 my BP. (2.4 to 1.6 my).

2. The second concerns the archaic Homo sapiens prior to the second Out-of-Africa migration. We may fix the core of its evolution to the period 300 ky BP (400 to 200 ky).


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Four major points of access1. The hypercycle proposed by Eigen and Schuster for the

emergence of life. This will be extrapolated to the evolution of language.

2. The semiotic cascade introduced by Peirce as a cosmic universal. It has to be restricted for our purpose.

3. Bühler’s model of the basic functions of signs and language. It must be critically reassessed.

4. The plurality of (parallel) symbolic forms postulated by Ernst Cassirer in his “philosophy of symbolic forms”.


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Communicative / cognitive capabilities of the LCA

Protolanguage / Protocognition

Actual human linguistic and cognitive capacities

Three steps in the last 7 my.


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• At the first level one may assume a capacity for communication found in many mammals and even birds. If we assume that modern primates like chimpanzees have not dramatically increased their capacities for cognition and language in the last 6 my, the level of LCA may be elucidated by a comparison between humans and primates (cf. Tomasello, 1999).

• The second level, that of Homo erectus, is really a large plateau, because this species existed for almost 2 my (up to the Homo floriensis 15,000 years ago). In this long period many variants developed. The Homo neanderthaliensis, a late branch of the Homo erectus population which reached Europe half a million years ago, became a rival of Homo sapiens.


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• In the Near East they occupied similar ecologies around 100,000 y BP, but only in the late migration of Homo sapiens to Europe (after 40,000 y BP) did the two species really clash before the Homo neanderthaliensis disappeared 15.000 y. later). Major genetically coded differences in semiotic and linguistic capacity must have emerged in this period and due to heavy ecological changes (mainly the ice-ages with cycles of migration from northern to southern areas, of dry and humid periods, changes in the fauna and flora) a series of bottle-neck scenarios could select even for minor differences in social organization and cognitive semiotic advantages.

• The third level must have been reached with the speciation of Homo sapiens and its migration first to Southern Asia (reaching Australia) and then to Europe. The potential of this new species is documented in the use of ochre and ornaments/art in South Africa (ca. 70,000 BP) and in the Franco-Cantabric cultures (after 35,000 BP), which laid the ground for the Neolithic revolution and the first civilization in Egypt and Mesopotamia.


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• Although Darwin’s assumption that human language arose from animal expressive and communicative behavior (Darwin, 1872) remains relevant in the context of modern evolutionary biology, one must still find a way to explain the rapidity and extent of the evolutionary change.

• Darwin proposed sexual selection as a natural analogy of breeding. In fact sexual selection can trigger a runaway process (cf. Wildgen, 2004: 17-20). However, the characters evolved by sexual selection are mostly different between the sexes and appear at sexual maturity.

• Language and linguistic thought ask for another, deeper runaway process. This does not eliminate sexual selection for specific phonic features but the pragmatic, semantic and syntactic power of human languages needs another type of explanation.


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• “Non-coupled self-replicative units guarantee the conservation of a limited amount of information which can be passed on from generation to generation. This proves to be one of the necessary prerequisites of Darwinian behavior, i.e. of selection and evolution.

• In a similar way, catalytic hypercycles are also selective, but, in addition, they have integrating properties, which allow for cooperation between otherwise competitive units. Yet, they compete even more violently than Darwinian species with any replicative entity not being part of their own. Furthermore, they have the ability of establishing global forms of organization as a consequence of their once-for-ever-selection behavior, which does not permit a coexistence with other hypercyclic systems, unless these are stabilized by higher-order linkages.” (Eigen and Schuster, 1979: 6)

The Hypercycle


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Illustration of the hypercycle “the inter-mediates Ii are able to instruct their own reproduction and, in addition, provide cata-lytic support for the reproduction of the subsequent interme-diate (using the energy -rich building materials X)” (ibidem: 5).

A

BD

C

Energy rich building materials

Catalytic hypercycle

Autocatalytic cycle


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• The most dramatic difference between physiological microevolution and symbolic (linguistic) macroevolution concerns the fact that the first one stores and activates the phylogenetic memory of a species, whereas the latter stores the historical/cultural and the individual/biographical memory.

• The interesting features of catalytic and hypercyclic organization is that they enable faithful replication and dramatic selection by their hyperbolic growth. This means that all types of organization which are not part of an operative hypercycle (i.e., all competitors at a lower level) are repressed.

• I will try to fill this abstract type of model with some details from human evolution. I choose two routes of application, one cognitive (neural) and one social (cultural).


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The cognitive hypercycle 1. The simplest level is that of reflexes which link perceptual input

and motor output. As the reflex mechanism itself is neither perceptual nor motoric but a neutral medium of linkage, it may be called a catalyst. Stimulus response models of language exploit this first level of catalysis (and stick to it).

2. If (an independent) memory exists, a top-down control may modify the “reflex”. Memory is, therefore, a higher control, an autocatalyst which has its own internal cycle of categorization, of distributed storage and retrieval modes.

3. Consciousness or specific fore-brain centered monitoring processes are able to compare and evaluate different second order (memory-induced) information and, therefore, they act like a hypercycle based on memory dependent autocatalytic processes.


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The social/cultural hypercycle 1. Already in the LCA contextual space acts as an external memory

of affordances, which is indexically given by paths (of social locomotion and predator/prey-locomotion), harvesting locations (and times), dangerous locations, places for sleep, courtship, housing, frontiers of territories, etc. These indexically loaded areas and places function like a catalyst of social action, insofar as they can coordinate social perception and action.

2. As soon as space is more specifically organized in relation to cognition and social use, it unfolds in a cycle of social “investment”. Architecture and the spatial organization of a village (or later a town) are clear examples. This level is autocatalytic insofar as the spatial organization becomes itself a cyclic structure in which different functions cooperate.


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Semiotically invested subspaces (left) and possible symbolic functions (right)

housing

fire place

myth. space

ritualpublic space

tool making

outside

chase, harvest


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3. In the further development different (regional) forms of symbolic modes (e.g., language and religion) clash. This was the case in the large Neolithic societies of Egypt and Mesopotamia, where a new level of symbolic consciousness was reached.

4. The single fields in the next figure are reorga-nized in a hypercycle, which produced new, institutionalized symbolic systems, such as a codified religion and a written language.


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The hypercycle of centralized, codified symbolic forms (myth and language).

myth1

Product of the interaction:Religious code

myth 2

myth3

myth 4

language1

Product of the interaction:Written language

language 2

language 3

language 4


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• Peirce gave a new interpretation to the semiotic triad discussed since antiquity. The three terms are called: sign (the body of the sign) — object (the external state/process the sign refers to) and interpretant (the system which lawfully links sign and object).

• The interpretant may be a living sign user (e.g., an interpreter), but it can be any support for a lawful connexion between sign and referent. As such it may reenter the semiotic triad lead to a cascade of sign-triads.

• Peirce abstracts the sign-notion from human (and animal) communication and subsumes any lawful relation between two entities as a sign. This leads to universal semiosis.

The generalized notion of sign (Peirce)


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The cascade of semiosis (Peirce)

Partial view of (infinite) semiosis in Peirce’s proposal based on the object.

As a consequence objects (i.e. the world) becomes semiotically loaded.Object (referent) 1Sign 1

Lawful relation between sign and object

Interpretant 1 becomes referent 2

Sign 3



Sign 2

Sign 4


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The relevance of the Peirce-hierarchy for the evolution of language

• In the transition to life (the central topic of Eigen and Schuster, 1979), a new type of selectivity and thus of information emerges.

• One could say that the genetic code as a sign structure refers to an evolutionary history, which itself refers to a sequence of lawful relations between species and their ecology. Therefore, one must distinguish at least two levels of semiosis (beyond the pre-life semiosis in physics and chemistry),


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R0 (species) O0 ( ecology)

The series of species

The series of ecologies

Selection at level 1



Resultant level n = genetic code

O1

O2

First level: The genetic code as memory of selections

Evolut

ionary

sequ

ence


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Information levels in biological systems

•The genetic code is stable under reproduction, but in order to guarantee this stability, it has to be insensitive to minor irregularities, individual variation, learning. Its information capacity increases but reaches a maximal level with sexual reproduction: Jantsch (1982: 255 ff.) calculates: 5109 digits

•The further augmentation of information can only be achieved based on the self-organization of the brain (and learning, i.e., non-genetic differentiation) and by social evolution. In learning and in the cultural selection/conservation of its outcome, we enter a new cycle where individuals (societies) interact with their ecology.


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The cascade of learning and social knowledge

R0 (individual reaction)

O0 (apprehended ecology)

Accumulated learning

Socially perceived ecology

I1 learned correlation between R0 and O0

I2 secondary learning (based on learned behavior)

higher levels of learning

Result = social knowledge

O1 imitated relevance

O2


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• The two levels have different selection criteria. • The symbolic forms (e.g. language) are not species-

universal, i.e., every separated community develops largely different symbolic systems, e.g., languages.

• Therefore, the grammars of languages cannot be compared to the genetic code.

• As the story of symbolic forms is still a rather short one compared to that of the genetic code, one could imagine selective pressures on symbolic codes which would eliminate almost all variants and thus produce a symbolic code which is as stable and reproducible (without errors) as it is the case for the genetic code. Another scenario could be the successive reduction of symbolic forms along the sequences of its evolution (regression) .

Basic differences between the two levels of semiosis


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representation

expression appeal

Meta-representation (poetic function)

Human language

Semiotic sign

Animal communication

Non-semiotic sign

Bühler‘s triad of sign-functions and the emergence of language


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The Bühler-schema as an evolutionary hierarchy

• The basic distinction is that between “social communication” (social calls, grooming,...) as a cover-term for both expression and appeal and functional referentiality (which first appears in referential alarm-calls).

• If representation is in its first stages already present in socially organized primates, the transition to humans concerns mainly:– the enrichment of representation, i.e., the lexicon and via

self-organization the syntax;– the emergence of meta-representation.

• The most prominent case of meta-representation concerns propositional attitudes and explicit performatives.


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Functional hierarchy at three levels 1. The inner circle is

reached by all animals with a social organization and specific reactions to their environment,

2. the middle circle concerns animal communication with a minimal reference to the context and

3. the outer circle encompasses humans

Metalingual, poetic function

Representation

Ecological categories

Phatic function

Social categories

Expression/appeal


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Selective value of representation• In a Darwinian framework only the fertility of the species (not its

cleverness) counts. • As representation is a type of information-sharing, one must ask:

Under what circumstances did (reciprocal) sharing of information pay?

• Strong reciprocity is only produced by between-group selectivity in contexts where groups with many strong reciprocators are better able to survive.

• The rapidly changing warm and cold periods where such contexts Eastern and Northern Africa (Sahara) and in Europe

• A population which is often in danger of extinction and must therefore reorganize (including strangers) will produce a relevant amount of strong reciprocators.

• As in normal time egoistic behavior is favored, the species will in the long run assemble a stable amount of reciprocators and egoists, i.e., the population is ethically bivalent. Cf. Fehr and Henrich (2003)


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Some levels of the emergence of grammar

1. Basic level: This most basic cognitive level contains the capacity of efficient locomotion, for causal impact on the environment and action. If consciousness is added one obtains a set of dynamic scenarios which control intentional behavior and the understanding of causality.

2. Emergence of performing vocal articulation and auditive perception: At this stage highly performant perceptual and motor faculties for vocal communication evolve. With the prominence of vocal communication for social comfort and control this capacity was further elaborated. The basic principles of phonology may have emerged in this period.


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3. A protolanguage based on a compositionally enriched lexicon: The underlying capacity characteristic of this stage of development is a very systematic exploitation of the affordances of the ambient and changing ecology. This capacity was amplified by continuously profiting from the growth of associative areas in the cortex. It probably evolved continuously in a long period between the migration of Homo erectus and the reign of late Cro-Magnon man.

4. The evolution of syntactically and textually complex languages: This step emerges with the mastering of stable valence patterns and the use of verbal art (narratives, rhetoric, song, myth). Probably this level emerged with archaic Homo sapiens and was fully evolved and functionally exploited in Cro-Magnon populations, which created the first large cultural networks.


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Linguistic universals and evolutionary levelsLinguistic universals should respect the evolutionary

stratification of the linguistic capacity of humans. It should therefore consider the levels of:

1. action/motion perception and planning (dynamic archetypes);

2. phonetic/phonological principles and routines, such as basic feature distinctions, syllable structures, rhythmic and euphonic constraints (i.e., phonetic universals and principles of phonological self-organization);

3. universals of lexical fields, polysemy, metaphor, and compositionality principles for word like gestalts;

4. syntactic and textual principles for the organization of larger linguistic gestalts.


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SummaryThe 18th century witnessed the rapid invention of „stories“

about the origin of language (Condillac, Rousseau, Maupertuis, Diderot, Herder). Using new details one could just continue writing better “stories”.

In my paper I started from three abstract models in order to develop a frame in which the evolution of language could be explained.

1. I used the concept of hypercycle (Eigen and Schuster) introduced for the modeling of the origin of life and the creation of the genetic code,

2. I applied the schema of (infinite) semiosis (Peirce) in order to explain the increase of information

3. I specified the functional triangle of Bühler in order to explain the emergence of higher levels of representation.


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One central concern was the equal consideration of cognitive/ neural and social/cultural parameters in the evolution of human language. Both lines, cognitive and cultural evolution, have been followed by the two “innovative” species which left Africa:

– Homo erectus (1,6 my BP)

– Homo sapiens (100 ky BP)

The precise nature of the semiotic hypercycle has still to be elaborated, in order to reach the theoretical and empirical level of Eigen und Schuster’s proposals.


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Some references• Bax, Marcel, Barend van Heusden and Wolfgang Wildgen (eds.), 2004.

Semiotic Evolution and the Dynamics of Culture, Lang, Bern.• Cassirer, Ernst, 1953/1957. The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, vol. 1

to 3, Yale U.P., New Haven.• Eigen, Manfred and Peter Schuster, 1979. The Hypercycle. A Principle

of Natural Self-Organization, Springer, Berlin.• Fehr, Ernst and Joseph Henrich, 2003. Is Strong Reciprocity a

Maladaptation? On the Evolutionary Foundation of Human Altruism, CESIFO Working Papers No. 859.

• Jantsch, Erich, 1980. The self-organizing universe: scientific and human implications of the emergent paradigm of evolution, Pergamon Press, Oxford.

• Peirce, Charles Sanders, 1956. Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, vol. 1-8, Harvard U.P., Cambridge U.P.

• Wildgen, Wolfgang, 2004. The Evolution of Human Languages. Scenarios, Principles, and Cultural Dynamics, Benjamins, Amsterdam.


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Further aspects (added material)


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The pluralism of symbolic forms and the

evolution of language 1. Myth gives rather a fluid/continuous view of the world.

Mythical symbols lack a clear separation of name and referent, insofar as the name is/calls for the entity. In a magical context the naming of the spirit makes him appear. Therefore the naming of God may offense Him and becomes a taboo. The arbitrariness of human symbols (which after de Saussure characterizes language) is ignored or rejected.

2. Language is organized into discrete units and shows a clear distinction between ‘signifiant’ and ‘signifié’ (F. de Saussure). It is organized in a quasi-logical grid of oppositions (Hjelmslev calls it the sublogical structure of language).


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3. Science, mainly in its mathematical form approaches “pure meaning” (reine Bedeutung). The mathematical description is neither contextually dependent / ambiguous nor is it based on bodily experience.

4. Secondary symbolic forms like technology, art and law are either located at intermediate levels (art between myth and language), technology (between myth and science) or are combinations of different symbolic forms (poetry, opera, film)

The basic character of language is most visible in the highly coherent and very rich structure of grammars. Therefore, the key to any evolutionary theory of language lies in the explanation of grammar (phonology, lexicon, syntax, discourse) and its semantic and, pragmatic aspects.


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• A word of caution may be necessary at this point. The fact that today or in some historical period language, music, dance, religion, law were strongly interwoven does not mean that this was the case at the origin. Contrary to religion, art, law, the capacity of language is much deeper rooted in human nature, as it shows up even under very poor conditions (it is only absent in rare cases like “wolf-children”, or in the case of genetic or neural deficiency). This almost universal stability of language points to some kind of evolutionary priority. Other symbolic forms were either shaped along the principles of language or, if they are of independent origin, they were adapted to language. Therefore, it seems necessary to gain first a good explanation of language. The consideration of other symbolic forms as possible elucidation of the origin of language is rather a methodological strategy, based on the fact that we have evidence on the other symbolic forms (tool industries, color pigments, cave art) before we have (written) records of language.

Theory of language and semioticsFaculty of language and literature The Semiotic Hypercycle and the Run-Away Process of Linguistic (Symbolic) Evolution.

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