Abstract
This paper analyzes the topic of conflict in reference to the evolution of language. Specifically, it examines two key elements involved in conflicting interactions, competition and cooperation, and shows how they are involved in the evolution of linguistic skills. According to a model of language origins recently proposed by Michael Tomasello, competition and cooperation are crucial to explain the transition from ape communication to human language. The idea is that ape communication is mainly individualistic because of the competitive nature of nonhuman primates; on the contrary, human language has an intrinsically cooperative nature and this makes human communication qualitatively different from animal communication. The aim of this paper is to call such a model into question by pointing to an “altruism of knowledge” in apes by discussing some recent experimental data on chimpanzee vocal communication.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
This idea recalls Paul Grice’s principle of cooperation (Grice 1975), which has been a theoretical milestone elaborated in linguistic pragmatics (e.g., Sperber and Wilson 1986). The principle of cooperation can be formulated in the following way: make your conversational contribution what is required at the stage at which it occurs by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged. On this point, see also Castelfranchi and Poggi (1998) in which Grice’s cooperation principle is conceived as an instantiation, in language, of Trivers’ reciprocal altruism: namely, they posit the existence of an altruism of knowledge. Incidentally, the importance of beliefs for human agents, as their primary route to planning, decision, and action, accounts for why deception is viewed as an aggressive act, a violation of the fundamental principle of altruism of knowledge, and of the natural right of humans to come to know beliefs relevant for their goals.
References
Ackley DH, Littman ML (1994) Altruism in the evolution of communication. In: Brooks RA, Maes P (eds) Artificial life IV. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 40–48
Boesch C (2005) Joint cooperative hunting among wild chimpanzees: taking natural observations seriously. Behav Brain Sci 28(5):692–693
Boesch C, Boesch H (1989) Hunting behavior of wild chimpanzees in the Tai National Park. Am J Phys Anthropol 78(4):547–573
Brent LJ, Chang SW, Gariépy JF, Platt ML (2013) The neuroethology of friendship. Ann N Y Acad Sci. doi:10.1111/nyas.12315
Brinck I, Gärdenfors P (2003) Co-operation and communication in apes and humans. Mind Lang 18(5):484–501
Call J, Tomasello M (2008) Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? 30 years later. Trends Cogn Sci 12(5):187–192
Castelfranchi C, Poggi I (1998) Bugie finzioni sotterfugi. Per una scienza dell’inganno. Roma, Carocci
Clark HH (1996) Using language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Corballis MC (2011) The recursive mind: the origins of human language, thought, and civilization. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Corballis MC (2013a) Toward a Darwinian perspective on language evolution. In: Coello Y, Bartolo A (eds) Language and action in cognitive neuroscience. Psychology Press, New York, pp 33–58
Corballis MC (2013b) Wandering tales: evolutionary origins of mental time travel and language. Front Psychol 4:485
Crockford C, Wittig RM, Mundry R, Zuberbühler K (2012) Wild chimpanzees inform ignorant group members of danger. Curr Biol 22(2):142–146
Dawkins R (1976) The selfish gene. Oxford University Press, Oxford
De Waal F (2009) The age of empathy: nature’s lessons for a kinder society. Random House Digital Inc, New York
Desalles JL (2007) Why we talk. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Dessalles JL (1998) Altruism, status, and the origin of relevance. In: Hurford JR, Studdert-Kennedy M, Knight C (eds) Approaches to the evolution of language: social and cognitive bases. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 130–147
Dessalles JL (2000) Language and hominid politics. In: Knight C, Studdert-Kennedy M, Hurford J (eds) The emergence of language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 62–79
Dunbar RIM (1996) Grooming, gossip, and the evolution of language. Faber and Faber, London
Ferretti F (2013a) Was there language outside Homo sapiens? A cognitive perspective. J Anthropol Sci 91:249–251
Ferretti F (2013b) Navigation, discourse and the origin of language. In: Brambilla P, Marini A (eds) Brain evolution, language, and psychopathology in schizophrenia. Routledge, New York, pp 22–32
Ferretti F, Adornetti I (2011) Discourse processing and spatial navigation. In: Kokinov B, Karmiloff-Smith A, Nersessian NJ (eds) European perspectives on cognitive science. New Bulgarian University Press, Sofia
Ferretti F, Adornetti I (2014) Against linguistic Cartesianism: toward a naturalistic model of human language origins and functioning. Lang Commun 37:29–39
Ferretti F, Cosentino E (2013) Time, language and flexibility of mind. The role of mental time travel in linguistic comprehension and production. Philos Psychol 26(1):24–46
Ferretti F, Adornetti I, Cosentino E, Marini A (2013) Keeping the route and speaking coherently: the hidden link between spatial navigation and discourse processing. J Neurolinguist 26(2):327–334
Fitch WT (2010) The evolution of language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Gärdenfors P (2003) How homo became sapiens: on the evolution of thinking. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Gilbert M (1989) On social facts. Routledge, New York
Grice HP (1975) Logic and conversation. In: Cole P, Morgan J (eds) Syntax and semantics volume 3: speech acts. Academic, New York, pp 41–58
Hamilton WD (1964) The genetical evolution of social behaviour. J Theor Biol 7:1–52
Hare B, Call J, Agnetta B, Tomasello M (2000) Chimpanzees know what conspecifics do and do not see. Anim Behav 59:771e786
Heyes CM (1998) Theory of mind in nonhuman primates. Behav Brain Sci 21:101e134
Humphrey NK (1976) The social function of intellect. In: Bateson PPG, Hinde RA (eds) Growing points in ethology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 303–317
Hurford JR (2007) The origins of meaning. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Knight C (1998) Ritual/speech coevolution: a solution to the problem of deception. In: Hurford JR, Studdert-Kennedy M, Knight C (eds) Approaches to the evolution of language: social and cognitive bases. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 68–91
Krebs JR, Dawkins R (1984) Animal signals: mind-reading and manipulation. In Krebs JR, Davies NB (eds) Behavioural Ecology: an evolutionary approach, vol 2, Blackwell Scientific, Oxford UK, pp 380–402
Levinson SC (1995) Interactional biases in human thinking. In: Goody E (ed) Social intelligence and interaction. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 221–260
Liszkowski U, Carpenter M, Striano T, Tomasello M (2006) 12-and 18-month-olds point to provide information for others. J Cogn Dev 7(2):173–187
Machery E, Dessalles JL, Cowie F, Alexander J (2010) Symposium on J.-L. Dessalles’s Why we Talk (OUP, 2007): Precis by J.-L. Dessalles, commentaries by E. Machery, F. Cowie, and J. Alexander, Replies by J.-L Dessalles. Biol Philos 25(5):851–890
Mitani J (2006) Reciprocal exchange in chimpanzees and other primates. In: Kappeler PM, van Schaik CP (eds) Cooperation in primates and humans: mechanisms and evolution. Springer, Berlin, pp 101–113
Noble J (2000) Cooperation, competition and the evolution of prelinguistic communication. In: Knight C, Studdert-Kennedy M, Hurford J (eds) The emergence of language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 40–61
Origgi G, Sperber D (2000) Evolution, communication and the proper function of language. In: Carruthers P, Chamberlain A (eds) Evolution and the human mind: modularity, language, and meta-cognition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 140–169
Pinker S (1994) The language instinct. William Morrow and Sons, New York
Pinker S, Bloom P (1990) Natural language and natural selection. Behav Brain Sci 13(4):707–784
Povinelli DJ, Vonk J (2003) Chimpanzee minds: suspiciously human? Trends Cogn Sci 7(4):157–160
Povinelli DJ, Vonk J (2004) We don’t need a microscope to explore the chimpanzee’s mind. Mind Lang 19(1):1–28
Premack D (1988) ‘Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?’ revisited. In: Byrne RW, Whiten A (eds) Machiavellian intelligence: social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes and humans. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 160–179
Premack D, Woodruff G (1978) Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? Behav Brain Sci 1(04):515–526
Schel AM, Machanda Z, Townsend SW, Zuberbuehler K, Slocombe K (2013a) Chimpanzee food calls are directed at specific individuals. Anim Behav 86(5):955–965
Schel AM, Townsend SW, Machanda Z, Zuberbühler K, Slocombe KE (2013b) Chimpanzee alarm call production meets key criteria for intentionality. PLoS One 8(10):e76674
Searle J (1990) Collective intentions and actions. In: Cohen P, Morgan J, Pollack M (eds) Intentions in communication. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 401–415
Searle J (1995) The construction of social reality. Free Press, New York
Seyfarth RM, Cheney DL (2010) Production, usage, and comprehension in animal vocalizations. Brain Lang 115:92–100
Seyfarth RM, Cheney DL (2012) The evolutionary origins of friendship. Annu Rev Psychol 63:153–177
Seyfarth, R.M. & Cheney D.L. (2013). Affiliation, empathy, and the origins of theory of mind. PNAS, 110(Supplement 2), 10349-10356.
Seyfarth RM, Cheney DL, Bergman TJ (2005) Primate social cognition and the origins of language. Trends Cogn Sci 9(6):264–266
Sperber D, Origgi G (2010) A pragmatic account of the origin of language. In: Larson RK, Déprez V, Yamakido H (eds) The evolution of human language: biolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 124–132
Sperber D, Wilson D (1986) Relevance: communication and cognition. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Sperber D, Clément F, Heintz C, Mascaro O, Mercier H, Origgi G, Wilson D (2010) Epistemic vigilance. Mind Lang 25(4):359–393
Tomasello M (2006) Why don’t apes point? In: Enfield N, Levinson SC (eds) Roots of human sociality: culture, cognition and interaction. Berg, New York, pp 506–524
Tomasello M (2008) Origins of human communication. MIT Press, Cambridge
Tomasello M (2009) Why we cooperate. MIT Press, Cambridge
Tomasello M, Carpenter M (2007) Shared intentionality. Dev Sci 10(1):121–125
Tomasello M, Carpenter M, Call J, Behne T, Moll H (2005) Understanding and sharing intentions: the origins of cultural cognition. Behav Brain Sci 28(5):675–690
Trivers RL (1971) The evolution of reciprocal altruism. Quart Rev Biol 46:35–57
Whiten A (2013) Humans are not alone in computing how others see the world. Anim Behav 86:213–221
Zahavi A, Zahavi A (1997) The handicap principle. Oxford University Press, New York
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Adornetti, I. (2015). Competition and Cooperation in Language Evolution: A Comparison Between Communication of Apes and Humans. In: D'Errico, F., Poggi, I., Vinciarelli, A., Vincze, L. (eds) Conflict and Multimodal Communication. Computational Social Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14081-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14081-0_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-14080-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-14081-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)