Features Cover story

Finding Câu lead này cho biết article

our voice
sẽ xoay quanh nguồn gốc
language, và từ 'cracked' báo
hiệu bí ẩn đã có lời giải :)

The origin of language is one of the biggest

mysteries of human evolution, but it looks like
we’ve finally cracked it, says David Robson
Truy tìm nguồn gốc quá khó đến mức có lúc
Language quan trọng thế nào chủ đề này bị tạm ngưng rất lâu

I In search of
N THE beginning was the word, and the
word was… what? At least since biblical
times, we have puzzled over the origins
of language. It is, after all, one of the few traits
that distinguishes humans from all other
animals. Even among the hundreds of other
primate species, not one has a communication
system that comes close to it in its flexibility
and infinite range of expression. Without
language, our greatest achievements –
including almost everything you see
around you – would have been impossible.
Unfortunately, this chapter of our story is
written in invisible ink. The archaeological
record can only offer circumstantial evidence
of language until writing began just a few
thousand years ago. This has led some to
argue that the search for language’s origins is
pointless. In 1866, the Paris Linguistics Society
even banned discussions of the subject – a
prejudice that continued among scientists for
nearly 100 years.
Fortunately, modern evolutionary theorists
are less easily deterred. In work that combines
findings from archaeology, anthropology, Các nhà lý thuyết quyết tâm tìm
cognitive science and linguistics, we are
finally beginning to track down when and
why we found our voice. The idea that is
emerging could solve not just one, but two
enduring mysteries about human evolution.
Let us first consider the timing. Given the
dearth of hard evidence, some researchers
have claimed that language arrived rapidly
40,000 years ago, when there was a creative
explosion of cave paintings and symbolic
culture, demonstrating the abstract thinking
that language requires. This explanation was
never wholly convincing, however. Humans
had already migrated and dispersed into
separate groups by this point, so it would have
the first words
Language may not leave fossils but clues
of an evolving talent for communication
can be found in the artefacts and anatomy
of our ancient ancestors
3.3 MILLION
YEARS AGO
Oldest known stone tools imply
hunting and coordinated activity
2 MILLION
YEARS AGO
Homo erectus evolves. It lives on
the savannah, hunts and butchers
large game and develops cooking.
However, it lacks anatomical
adaptations for speech
câu trả lời
1.6 MILLION
YEARS AGO
Tools become more complex,
including skilfully crafted
hand axes
1 MILLION
YEARS AGO
Ambush hunting indicates
sophisticated cooperation
and planning
Evidence về thay
đổi trong cơ thể
người (anatomy)
cho thấy roots của
language sâu xa
hơn nhiều...
required a simultaneous cognitive shift in all
the populations across the globe. Sure enough,
accumulating evidence about the evolution of
key anatomical changes that made us capable
of speech leaves little doubt that language
must have far deeper roots.
For a start, other great apes have large air
sacs in the throat. These help them make
booming calls to scare off rivals, but inhibit
the production of the distinct vowel sounds
crucial to human speech, according to acoustic
Đặc điểm simulations by Bart de Boer at the Free
về liên University of Brussels in Belgium. Our earliest
kết giữa ancestors had such sacs, but they aren’t found
brain với in Homo heidelbergensis – the common
cơ hoành ancestor of Neanderthals and modern
và các humans – which evolved 700,000 years ago.
cơ liên Both Neanderthals and modern humans
sườn also show a large number of nerve pathways
giúp phát from the brain, through the spine, to the
âm thanh diaphragm and the muscles between the
chuẩn ribs. These provide the refined breath
xác hơn. control necessary for precise vocalisations.
In addition, both species have characteristic

Bằng34chứng từ các| 4bức

| New Scientist Mayvẽ trong hang động cho thấy language có vẻ xuất hiện 40,000 năm
2019
trước, nhưng giả thuyết này chưa thuyết phục vì khi đó loài người đã phân tán khắp trái đất
thì làm sao bỗng nhiên cùng nghĩ ra language cùng 1 lúc?
 Nhóm khác lại cho rằng language
xuất phát từ cử động tay trước,
evidence là mọi người có xu hướng
cử động tay khi nói + Homo erectus
thời cổ đại và các loài linh trưởng
khác dù chưa phát triển đặc điểm
phát âm vẫn có thể communicate để
tạo công cụ và săn bắn nhờ vào
gestures và symbols.

“Speech of some kind

had emerged by at least
400,000 years ago, and
possibly far earlier”

through sexual selection, with competing

Có 1 gene giúp cho người điều khiển mặt và
miệng chuẩn xác hơn, dẫn đến khả năng
phát âm thanh phức tạp.
Tai của tổ tiên người hiện đại nhạy cảm
với tần số âm thanh khớp với âm thanh
của người luôn, giúp họ tách biệt những
thay đổi nhỏ và tạo ra nghĩa khác nhau
của language!
changes to part of the inner ear, giving greater
sensitivity to sound frequencies within the
range of the human voice – an essential
adaptation allowing subtle changes in
utterances to convey different meanings.
Then there is the FOXP2 gene, which
influences the brain’s wiring and plasticity
in areas controlling speech. It is widespread in
mammals, but we carry a version that enables
us to make the finely controlled movements
of our face and mouth required for coherent
speech. Neanderthals share a very similar
version of the gene, which suggests they,
too, were capable of complex articulation.
Given these converging findings, de Boer
and others are now convinced that speech of
some kind had emerged by at least 400,000
years ago, when humans and Neanderthals
diverged. It may even have started hundreds
of thousands of years before that, they argue,
when our ancestors first began displaying
more sophisticated cooperative behaviours –
MATT CHASE
males developing more complex songs to beat
Dần dần các âm their rivals. Only later, as human intelligence
thanh đó được gắn grew, did those sounds slowly become
meanings. associated with certain meanings.
Darwin pointed out that another group of
Đúng là music và
primates – gibbons – sing to attract mates.
language có nhiều
sự liên kết, nhưng And modern science offers some hints of an
cách giải thích khác intimate connection between language and
là cả 1 giới đều tạo music in humans. Brain scans, for instance,
reveal that they are processed by overlapping
ra âm thanh, hoặc
neural networks. But evidence that language
là parents tạo âm
and music emerged through sexual selection
thanh để dỗ babies.
is weak, since you would expect to see large
sex differences in these abilities as a result.
There are other possibilities, however. Perhaps
Language and speech arise from a complex the driving force wasn’t male display, but an
mix of physical, social and cultural influences equal duet between mates, or even singing by
that evolved in a piecemeal fashion, says Dan parents to calm their babies.
Dediu at the University of Lyon, France. “[So] Nevertheless, many researchers don’t buy
we are bound to find degrees of language and these arguments. Instead, some propose a
speech going back to Homo erectus.” Stephen gestural protolanguage in which the first
Levinson at the Max Planck Institute for language-like communication arose through
Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands agrees. hand movements. The idea is attractive for
“Homo erectus’s hunting and toolmaking many reasons. It might explain why all
abilities indicate some kind of advanced humans, including those who are blind,
communication system,” he says. move their hands as they talk, often without
realising they are doing so. Similarly, the
spontaneous emergence of sign languages
Singing and signing among groups of hearing and speech-
Establishing exactly what pushed us along impaired people indicates an instinct to
that evolutionary path has been much harder. use our hands when our voices fail us.
Most ideas fall into one of three camps. Levinson is a fan of this theory, noting that
Charles Darwin provided the first – and Homo erectus, despite lacking the anatomical
most provocative. In The Descent of Man, he changes seen in later species, could have used
argued that human ancestors passed through gestures to coordinate hunting activities. Non-
a kind of musical protolanguage. Like bird human primates can be surprisingly dextrous
song, these calls had no specific meaning, with their hands and some, in captivity, have

possibly 2 million years ago or more when
stone tools imply people were hunting.
Ước lượng thời điểm xuất hiện language có
thể 2 triệu năm trước khi người bắt đầu đi săn
but were used by males to attract mates. In
this way, our vocal flexibility first emerged
Darwin cho rằng các âm thanh đầu tiên
được males dùng để hấp dẫn females
even been taught to communicate using
complex signs, but tend to find it harder to >
4 May 2019 | New Scientist | 35
Giả thuyết 2 vẫn giải quyết được tại sao humans
chuyển sang vocalised language. Giả thuyết 3
xuất hiện: con người bắt chước tiếng động xung
quanh.
learn to reproduce specific sounds. Gestures
may therefore have been a much easier means
of communicating ideas at the beginning of
language evolution. That would have prepared
our brains for some of the challenges of
language, such as the capacity to connect
symbols with meaning, without making
huge demands on our primitive voice boxes.
As compelling as these arguments are, the
gestural protolanguage can’t neatly explain
why we made the switch to primarily vocalised
language. That question brings us to the third
idea. The notion that language first emerged
through onomatopoeia – or imitating the
sounds of things – is perhaps the most
intuitive of the three possibilities. After all,
even children will mimic a neigh or a howl, say,
to signify a horse or a wolf. Yet historically, this
option had been the underdog, thanks to a
couple of seemingly insurmountable issues.
First, it requires a talent for vocal mimicry.
Yet our early ancestors lacked the anatomical
and neural adaptations needed for controlled
vocalisations. However, it is now emerging
that non-human primates have more breath
control and vocal flexibility than was thought.
Some orangutans can learn to whistle, for
instance, and reproduce sounds of a certain
pitch. This suggests that our early ancestors
may have been capable of crude imitation
without too many anatomical changes.
Meaningful sounds
A second objection is that onomatopoeia is too
limited to form the basis of a protolanguage.
How would our ancestors have signalled silent
concepts, such as a particular plant or tool, or
something more abstract, like directions to a
river? What sound would they use to represent
a quiet animal like a rabbit? Hand signs, by
contrast, could outline the shape of something
or its means of movement – another argument
for the idea that gesture came before speech.
But recent research suggests mimicry
is more versatile than we might assume.
Gary Lupyan at the University of Wisconsin-
Madison and Marcus Perlman at the
Nhưng thí nghiệm cho thấy âm thanh có thể
University of Birmingham, UK, set up a
diễn tả nhiều concepts hơn chúng ta nghĩ :)
competition in which participants had to
convey a range of concepts – such as “cook”,
“gather”, “knife” or “fruit” – using made-up
vocalisations. The scientists then played
the recordings to a new set of participants,
who had to guess the meanings. Contrary to
expectation, they performed far better than
chance, suggesting that some inventive
onomatopoeia (such as the “whooshing”
of a blade) can communicate a much wider
36 | New Scientist | 4 May 2019
Evidence cho thấy tổ tiên chúng ta có thể đã
bắt chước được âm thanh mà chưa cần thay
đổi nhiều về anatomy.
700,000
YEARS AGO
Homo heidelbergensis
evolves. It shows the first
sign of being anatomically
adapted for speech
400,000
YEARS AGO
Neanderthals evolve. They
develop a sophisticated home
life and hunting practices.
Adaptations for speech
can be found in their genes,
brains and anatomy
300,000
ADRIANA VARELA PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY
YEARS AGO
Homo sapiens evolves. It is
the first species fully adapted
for language. Increasingly
complex technology, culture
and social organisation
imply developments in
communication Lewis nghĩ 3 giả
thuyết không nhất
thiết phải bác bỏ range of concepts than once imagined.
nhau mà có thể With so many pros and cons for each
120,000 hypothesis of protolanguage, we may seem
YEARS AGO
hợp lại thành 1 lý
thuyết chung! no closer to finding an answer than the Paris
Early signs of pigment Linguistics Society was in 1866. But what if
use suggest emergence all three ideas contain elements of truth?
of symbolic culture After all, several of the 7000 or so languages
Nghi vấn về khả năng diễn đạt những spoken today – including some of Australia’s
concepts mà không gắn với âm thanh. Aboriginal languages and Paamese in
Vanuatu – use elements of song, hand signs,
40,000 imitated sounds and words interchangeably.
YEARS AGO “I would guess that languages must have
The “cultural revolution” always been multimodal to some degree,”
includes an explosion of cave art, says Dediu. So perhaps, instead of offering
clothes making and ritualistic competing explanations, these three ideas
burial, demonstrating abstract might work together to provide a unified
thinking required for language theory of the origin of language. That is
exactly what anthropologist Jerome Lewis of
University College London is now proposing.
Like Darwin, Lewis believes singing was the
10,000 first step to freeing up our vocal cords. In place
YEARS AGO of sexual selection, however, he suggests it
Agriculture begins emerged for protection. This idea is inspired
by his work with Bayaka societies in central
Africa, where people take turns to sing all
night to ward off predators. Their intertwining
5000 voices, singing at different pitches, make the
YEARS AGO group sound larger, and potentially more
Oldest known writing dangerous, to animals in the surrounding
Singing có thể đã được dùng để tạo ra âm thanh lớn hơn
và 'tỏ vẻ' nguy hiểm -> xua đuổi thú dữ :)
 Thí nghiệm back up giả thuyết này. Người tham
gia dùng gestures và vocalisations để truyền đạt ý
từ nhóm này sang nhóm khác. Dần dần các thông
điệp trở nên systematic và efficient hơn!
Our urge to mimic the
sounds made by other
animals seems to have
been one of three
cornerstones of
language evolution
Nhiều người ủng hộ
Lewis. Dunbar bổ sung
rằng singing là điều kiện
dẫn đến language và chỉ
ra là hát cùng 1 nhóm còn
giúp tăng endorphin ->
tăng sự gắn kết trong
nhóm người.
Tiếp nữa: 3. humans bắt
chước tiếng animals để lừa
chúng đến rồi bắt. 4.
humans dùng noises để tìm
nhau trong rừng. 5. dùng cả
sounds và mimes để kể
chuyện và dạy người mới đi
săn.
forest. Similar behaviour has been found in hunting would have given our ancestors an
among the San people in southern Africa immediate evolutionary advantage. It would
and Indian forest societies, he says. also have established the idea that a voiced
Lewis suggests that singing became used sound can represent something meaningful.
for defence after our ancestors descended People could then have used those same
from the trees. “Trees offer a very secure sounds during storytelling and mimed
environment for avoiding large predators,” performances, perhaps to teach novices how
he says. When we started to walk upright to hunt. “Re-enactments play a crucial role in
and came into savannah-like landscapes, we transmitting the sort of knowledge you
would have been vulnerable to a frightening require for collective hunting,” says Lewis.
array of large cat predators, says Lewis.
The first songs would have sounded
completely different from the refined music “This unified theory of
that we sing today, but chanting in a chorus language solves two
would still scare away animals and help
protect vulnerable groups. “And this business of the biggest mysteries
of vocalising and changing tones to disguise
numbers would have led to the sort of vocal
of human evolution”
dexterity that is crucial to the evolution of
more sophisticated vocal boxes and speech This, in his view, was the tipping point.
articulators,” he says. Once pantomimed communication arose, the
This, in turn, would have enabled a growing sounds and gestures could quickly become
talent for mimicry, which might have aided more structured and stylised, eventually
hunting. Modern hunter-gatherers often establishing an agreed lexicon between
imitate the sounds of forest animals to draw speakers that resembled modern language.
their prey towards them, says Lewis. They also There is substantial evidence to back up this
use vocalisations such as bird noises to locate last development. Various lab experiments
different group members in the forest as they have asked participants to use gestures and
coordinate movements. Employing mimicry improvised vocalisations to communicate
Phát triển thêm giả thuyết của Lewis: 1. môi trường mới nguy hiểm Đây là bước ngoặt. Từ đây
hơn nên cần đồng thanh để dọa animals. 2. phải chant và thay đổi language trở nên có hệ thống
tones nhiều dẫn đến khả năng tạo âm phức tạp hơn sau này. và trau chuốt hơn.
ideas to successive groups. As these get
passed from person to person, they become
more systematic, a process that appears to
make them more efficient and easier for new
speakers to learn. Likewise, in communities
where people who are hearing and speech-
impaired haven’t been taught a recognised
sign language, their DIY signing initially lacks
formal grammatical structures. However,
over just a couple of generations, more
standardised rules emerge.
Bonding exercise
Lewis’s general idea has been well received
by other researchers. “I think the musical
protolanguage, in tandem with iconic gestures
and iconic vocalisations, is a compelling
theory,” says Perlman.
Robin Dunbar at the University of Oxford
also embraces the idea that music helped
language evolve. “The breath control required
for singing is crucial for language production,”
he says. “Language postdates wordless
singing, and probably by quite a long way.”
He also backs Lewis’s proposal that those first
songs helped our ancestors avoid predators –
but with a twist. Singing together, he points
out, stimulates the production of endorphins,
hormones that promote social cohesion. So it
would have allowed our ancestors to live in
larger and larger groups, giving them strength
in numbers. “Singing evolved to bond groups
because bonded groups keep predators at bay,”
says Dunbar.
Lewis, for his part, agrees that group group
bonding was an important function of those bonding
early musical vocalisations. In his view, this tạo sự
also helped create the shared trust that is tin
essential for language to take off. “Suddenly tưởng,
you get a feeling of ‘us’,” he says. Words, after giúp
all, would be useless unless most people are languag
using them honestly and cooperatively for e phát
the shared interests of the group.
If correct, this unified theory solves two of
triển
the biggest mysteries of human evolution:
the origins of language and singing. It would
also be another testament to Darwin’s genius.
Although he argued that speech originated
via a musical protolanguage, he also
described how gesture and onomatopoeia
could have helped attach meaning to our
early utterances.
Words may not fossilise, but hundreds of
thousands of years after language emerged,
we may finally be ready to write their story. ❚
David Robson is a science writer based in London.
His book, The Intelligence Trap, is out now
Nếu Lewis đúng thì 2 bí ẩn lớn được
4 May 2019 | New Scientist | 37
giải quyết, và Darwin quá giỏi :)