From: Ivanovas/Milatos
Message: 303
Date: 1999-11-20
> University of Maryland, Baltimore Countythat
> 18-Nov-99
> http://www.newswise.com/articles/1999/11/SPEECH.MBC.html
>
> Origins of Speech Linked with Bipedality
> Contact: melichar@...
>
> Baltimore, MD - Speech is a byproduct of the physiological adjustments
> came along with walking upright on two feet, according to Robert Provine,UMBC
> professor of psychology.and
>
> The ability to speak is both a mechanical and neurological issue. In
> quadrupeds, there is a one-to-one correlation between breathing pattern
> stride because the lungs must be fully inflated to add rigidity to theand
> thoracic
> complex (sternum, ribs and associated musculature) that absorbs forelimb
> impacts during running. Without such synchronization, the thorax is weak
> unable to absorb the impact. When primates stood and walked on two legs,the
> thorax was freed of its support function during locomotion, breaking thelink
> between breathing patterns and stride. This flexibility enabled humans tostudying
> regulate breathing and ultimately, speak.
>
> A prominent expert on laughter, Provine discovered this link while
> chimp laughter, which sounds like panting. Provine found that thepant-like
> laugh is a result of an inability to manipulate breathing patterns,limiting
> chimps to a simple inhalation-exhalation cycle.an
>
> "Humans have more flexible respiratory control, making it possible to chop
> exhalation into parts, as is evident in the 'ha-ha-ha' pattern oflaughter,"
> says Provine.the
>
> He points out that humans both laugh and speak by the modulating sounds
> produced by an outward breath. Without respiratory control, human laughter
> would more closely resemble chimp laughter and speech would be impossible.
>
> Provine's upcoming book, Laughter, will be published by Little/Brown in
> spring of 2000.
>
>>Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 08:37:22 +0000
>To: <evolutionary-psychology@egroups.com>
>From: "Dr. John R. Skoyles" <skoyles@...>
>Subject: [evol-psych] Re: Origins of Speech Linked with Bipedality
>
>
>The Provine's discovery that bipedality is essential for the thoracic
>breathing control needed for speech is the most important thing posted on
>evol-psych so far. Indeed, it is one of the most important discoveries made
>in the history of understanding human evolution.
>
>The reason is that human language is utterly unlike any other form of
>animal communication since it is uniquely a vocabulary based form of
>communication. No other animal possesses anything like it. Moreover
>vocabulary is fundamental to all the aspects of language usually taken to
>be more important such as syntax and meaning -- without the tens of
>thousands of words, names and placenames they could not exist. Vocabulary
>-- and the capacity to create, learn and propagate vocabulary are thus the
>foundations upon which human language builds. The problem is why was the
>human species the only animal to acquire the ability to produce so many
>thousands of different words.
>
>Michael Studdert-Kennedy in his particulate principle has provided part of
>the answer: the ability to create subunits [phones or gestures] that can be
>combined into other sequences thus creating thousands of possible lexical
>units. But that begs the question why were hominids the only species able
>to create such recombinable subunits.
>
>Provine's work now explains why. Words can either be created out of gesture
>subunits as with sign language, or phones as with spoken speech. Both types
>of subunit require bipedality. The gesture subunit--bipedality link is
>common sense: an ape that uses their arms to hold trees or knuckle walk
>does not have arms free to make visual gestures. Moreover in trees or low
>down even if they could, they would not be easily seen. Sign words could
>only be evolved by a bipedal ape.
>
>The problem is what stopped nonhuman apes from creating lexicals through
>phones. Provine has earlier shown that humans are unique in as he puts it
>'to chop an exhalation'. Without this there could be no particulate vocal
>subunits for making lexicals. But this does not explain why humans, but not
>our close cousins the chimps, should be privileged to do this. That is what
>he now explains. Bipedality frees breathing from locomotion which in other
>apes take priority over its control.
>
>Provine's work was presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference.
>Fortunately for this was just before the last date for abstract submissions
>for next year's Evolution of Language conference -- and so I have been able
>to submit a piece detailing how Provine's work critically changes our
>understanding of the origins of language.
>
>One mistake we should avoid is inferring that because thoracic breathing
>control is essential for speech that it evolved after bipedality for this
>purpose. Thoracic breathing control is also essential for our ability to
>sing and imitate the sounds of other animals. It is quite possible that
>early hominids exploited the new freedom given by bipedality to modulate
>their vocalizations to imitate prey -- something done by many hunters in
>the modern world -- or even their predators [to deter them] -- Val Geist's
>theory of speech origins. Or that hominids used it to sing to form the
>parental bonds needed to super-resource hominids offspring with their
>resource demanding oversized brains. All monogamous primates sing [indris,
>titis, tarsiers and gibbons]; singing on numerous occasions [birds, whales,
>dolphins] has evolved to create parental and group bonding. Early humans
>might have been similar. This and several other factors suggest singing was
>an evolutionary stepping-stone before humans exploited thoracic breathing
>for speech see Vaneechoutte and Skoyles (1998).
>
>Vaneechoutte, M. & Skoyles, J. R. (1998). The memetic origin of language:
>modern humans as musical primates. Journal of Memetics, 2.
>http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1998/vol2/vaneechoutte_m&skoyles_jr.html
>
>
>
>Dr. John R. Skoyles
>6 Denning Rd,
>Hampstead, NW3 1SU
>London, UK
>
>Check out my Golden House-Sparrow award winning homepage
>http://www.bigfoot.com/~skoyles