Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T20:09:47.919Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The origin of language as a product of the evolution of double-scope blending

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

Gilles Fauconnier  and
Mark Turner
Gilles Fauconnier
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA [email protected]://www.cogsci.ucsd.edu/~faucon/
Mark Turner
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Science, Case Western University, Cleveland, OH [email protected]://markturner.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Meaning construction through language requires advanced mental operations also necessary for other higher-order, specifically human behaviors. Biological evolution slowly improved conceptual mapping capacities until human beings reached the level of double-scope blending, perhaps 50 to 80 thousand years ago, at which point language, along with other higher-order human behaviors, became possible. Languages are optimized to be driven by the principles and powers of double-scope blending.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 5 , October 2008 , pp. 520 - 521
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. (2000) Genes, peoples, and languages. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.Google Scholar
Coulson, S. (2006) Semantic leaps. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Coulson, S. & Oakley, T., eds. (2000) Special issue of Cognitive Linguistics on conceptual blending. Cognitive Linguistics 11(3–4).Google Scholar
Coulson, S. & Oakley, T., eds. (2005) Special issue of Journal of Pragmatics on conceptual blending theory. Journal of Pragmatics 37(10).Google Scholar
Dancygier, B., ed. (2006) Special issue of Language and Literature 15(1).Google Scholar
Dancygier, B. & Sweetser, E. (2005) Mental spaces in grammar. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fauconnier, G. & Turner, M. (1996) Blending as a central process of grammar. In: Conceptual structure, discourse, and language, ed. Goldberg, A.. Center for the Study of Language and Information (distributed by Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Fauconnier, G. & Turner, M. (1998) Conceptual integration networks. Cognitive Science 22(2): 133–87.Google Scholar
Fauconnier, G. & Turner, M. (2002) The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind's hidden complexities. Basic Books.
Fauconnier, G. & Turner, M. (2008) The origin of language as a product of the evolution of modern cognition. Origin and evolution of languages: Approaches, models, paradigms. Equinox.Google Scholar
Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N. & Fitch, W. T. (2002) The faculty of language: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science 298(5598):1569–79.Google Scholar
Hougaard, A. & Oakley, T., eds. (2008) Mental spaces approaches to discourse and interaction. John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Hutchins, E. (2005) Material anchors for conceptual blends. Journal of Pragmatics 37(10):1555–77.Google Scholar
Imaz, M. & Benyon, D. (2007) Designing with blends: Conceptual foundations of human-computer interaction and software engineering. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Klein, R. (1999) The human career: Human biological and cultural origins, 2nd edition. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. & Núñez, R. (2000) Where mathematics comes from: How the embodied mind brings mathematics into being. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Liddell, S. (2003) Grammar, gesture, and meaning in American sign language. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mandelblit, N. (1997) Grammatical blending: Creative and schematic aspects in sentence processing and translation. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
Mithen, S. (1996) The prehistory of the mind: A search for the origins of art, science and religion. Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Pereira, F. C. (2007) Creativity and artificial intelligence: A conceptual blending approach. Mouton De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Slingerland, E. (2008) What science offers the humanities: Integrating body and culture. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sørensen, J. (2006) A cognitive theory of magic. (Cognitive Science of Religion Series). Altamira Press.Google Scholar
Thomson, R., Pritchard, J. K., Shen, P., Oefner, P. & Feldman, M. (2000) Recent common ancestry of human Y chromosomes: Evidence from DNA sequence data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 97(13):7360–65.Google Scholar
Turner, M. (1996) The literary mind: The origins of thought and language. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Turner, M. (2001) Cognitive dimensions of social science: The way we think about politics, economics, law, and society. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, R. (2005) Material anchors and conceptual blends in time-telling. Doctoral dissertation. Department of Cognitive Science University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
Zbikowski, L. (2001) Conceptualizing music: Cognitive structure, theory, and analysis. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar