Evoluzionismo e biolinguistica. Per una prospettiva biologicamente fondata sull’origine del linguaggio
Abstract
The evolution of human language raised a great debate in the field of Cognitive Sciences. Darwin in his biolinguistics proposal traces in the song of the ancestors the origin. However, the attention paid to the inarticulate sounds of the other species and not to the biology of constraints, inevitably influenced the theories on the evolution of language. Biolinguistics has provided a decisive contribution to the issue through the study of the biological basis of human vocal communication, in order to understand the cognitive processes involved and phylogenesis. Furthermore, the ontogenesis of human language is one of the most analysed aspects and the biological and ethological comparison can provide insight for research. In this frame of studies we will examine the recent data of biology of human language and ethology of the vocal communication in primates. It is possible to apply the evolutionist theories to biolinguistics and to assign a structural continuity, in the aim of clarifying the phylogenesis of language.
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