Workshop Description 
 

Every human community discovered on the planet so far uses language. No other natural communication system of equivalent representational or expressive power exists in the entire animal kingdom.

 

This workshop asks, “How does a human language get its start from scratch in the absence of a conventionalized linguistic model and gain its expressive power?”, and "What is the role of the individual’s mind, and what is the role of having a sustained language community in the process of language emergence and evolution?”

 

Languages can be analyzed as formal systems and as functional systems. These different lenses sometimes yield divergent answers to the central questions above, and disciplinary self-segregation sometimes limits the discoveries that might derive from increased cross-talk between perspectives. Accordingly, this workshop aims to bring together researchers from cognitive science, linguistics, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and related disciplines with the aim of integrating findings and insights from diverse perspectives concerning the contributions of cognitive and cultural factors to the initial stages of language emergence among modern humans.

 

We welcome abstracts on any of (but not limited to) the following topics: language emergence and change, protolanguage, homesign, emerging sign languages, artificial language, iterated learning, language and cognition, evolution of semiotic systems (biological, cultural, or simulated), and gesture in primates (human and non-human).