A model of evolutionary path for language

• Grant number: 17/24709-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2018
• End date: December 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Thiago Oliveira da Motta Sampaio
• Grantee: Niasche Moraes de Aquino Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Since the publication of The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (Darwin, 1872), in which Darwin approached human evolution, the emergence of language is one of the great questions. The present project - confronting this problem - consists in the formulation of a model of the evolutionary path, formalizing the relations between the different units and cognitive operations - since its appearance - that make up the capacity of Homo sapiens. The proposed model constitutes of a logically valid and coherent representation of language evolution, by applying the Applied Evolutionary Epistemology AEE (Gontier, 2017), which is a scientific and philosophical methodology used to conduct research about evolution, which offers a way of defining the units (elements that evolve), levels (at which level/place the evolutionary mechanisms operate) and the mechanisms (the means by which evolution occurs) involved, in this case, in a language's evolution. Thus, it is avoided the idea that this is only a mental abstraction, guaranteed its explanatory power. After the formulation of the model, this will be compared with data from archeology, neuroscience, pidgins and creoles, language acquisition, cognitive science, and so on, to evaluate if the units, levels and mechanisms defined, are sustained. The research lies in a new field, Biolinguistics, and beyond the immediate interfaces that the field proposes (e.g. between evolution and linguistics) and the concepts that support the model (e.g. merge, as a basic cognitive operation responsible for the hierarchical structure of language), several areas are interested in such a model. One of these areas is Artificial Intelligence, therefore, it is expected that the theoretical model to be developed would, as well, be useful and applicable in related areas. (AU)