scholarly journals Expression unleashed: The evolutionary & cognitive foundations of human communication

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-46
Author(s):  
Christophe Heintz ◽  
Thom Scott-Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Social Ecology ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Partner Choice ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Cognitive Capacities ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Cognitive Foundations ◽  
The Many

Abstract Human expression is open-ended, versatile and diverse, ranging from ordinary language use to painting, from exaggerated displays of affection to micro-movements that aid coordination. Here we present and defend the claim that this expressive diversity is united by an interrelated suite of cognitive capacities, the evolved functions of which are the expression and recognition of informative intentions. We describe how evolutionary dynamics normally leash communication to narrow domains of statistical mutual benefit, and how they are unleashed in humans. The relevant cognitive capacities are cognitive adaptations to living in a partner choice social ecology; and they are, correspondingly, part of the ordinarily developing human cognitive phenotype, emerging early and reliably in ontogeny. In other words, we identify distinctive features of our species’ social ecology to explain how and why humans, and only humans, evolved the cognitive capacities that, in turn, lead to massive diversity and open-endedness in means and modes of expression. Language use is but one of these modes of expression, albeit one of manifestly high importance. We make cross-species comparisons, describe how the relevant cognitive capacities can evolve in a gradual manner, and survey how unleashed expression facilitates not only language use but novel behaviour in many other domains too, focusing on the examples of joint action, teaching, punishment and art, all of which are ubiquitous in human societies but relatively rare in other species. Much of this diversity derives from graded aspects of human expression, which can be used to satisfy informative intentions in creative and new ways. We aim to help reorient cognitive pragmatics, as a phenomenon that is not a supplement to linguistic communication and on the periphery of language science, but rather the foundation of the many of the most distinctive features of human behaviour, society and culture.

scholarly journals Expression Unleashed

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Heintz ◽  
Thom Scott-Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Social Ecology ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Partner Choice ◽  
Cognitive Capacities ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Species Comparisons ◽  
Aid Coordination ◽  
Novel Behaviour

Human expression is diverse and multi-faceted, ranging from ordinary language use to painting, from exaggerated displays of affection to micro-movements that aid coordination. Here we present and defend the claim that this expressive diversity is united by an interrelated suite of cognitive capacities, the evolved function of which is the expression and recognition of informative intentions. We describe how evolutionary dynamics normally leash communication to narrow domains of statistical mutual benefit, and how they are unleashed in humans. The relevant cognitive capacities are cognitive adaptations to living in a partner choice social ecology; and they are, correspondingly, part of the ordinarily developing human cognitive phenotype, emerging early and reliably in ontogeny. In other words, we identify distinctive features of our species’ social ecology that can explain how and why humans evolved the cognitive capacities that, in turn, lead to massive diversity in means and modes of expression. We make relevant cross-species comparisons, describe how the relevant cognitive capacities can evolve in a gradual manner, and survey how unleashed expression facilitates not only the evolution of languages, but novel behaviour in other domains too, focusing on the examples of joint action, punishment, and the arts. We aim to help reorient cognitive pragmatics, as a phenomenon that is not a supplement to linguistic communication and on the periphery of language science, but rather the foundation of many of the most of the most distinctive features of human behaviour and societies.

Bad Dreams and Secret Artists: Translating Freud into Literature

2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Careful Attention ◽  
Popular Approach ◽  
English Reader ◽  
Creative Writer ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Way

This article addresses the increasingly popular approach to Freud and his work which sees him primarily as a literary writer rather than a psychologist, and takes this as the context for an examination of Joyce Crick's recent translation of The Interpretation of Dreams. It claims that translation lies at the heart of psychoanalysis, and that the many interlocking and overlapping implications of the word need to be granted a greater degree of complexity. Those who argue that Freud is really a creative writer are themselves doing a work of translation, and one which fails to pay sufficiently careful attention to the role of translation in writing itself (including the notion of repression itself as a failure to translate). Lesley Chamberlain's The Secret Artist: A Close Reading of Sigmund Freud is taken as an example of the way Freud gets translated into a novelist or an artist, and her claims for his ‘bizarre poems' are criticized. The rest of the article looks closely at Crick's new translation and its claim to be restoring Freud the stylist, an ordinary language Freud, to the English reader. The experience of reading Crick's translation is compared with that of reading Strachey's, rather to the latter's advantage.

Religious Narrative

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-9
Author(s):  
Armin Geertz
Keyword(s):  
Special Issue ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Religious Narrative ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of

This introduction to the special issue on narrative discusses various ways of approaching religious narrative. It looks at various evolutionary hypotheses and distinguishes between three fundamental aspects of narrative: 1. the neurobiological, psychological, social and cultural mechanisms and processes, 2. the many media and methods used in human communication, and 3. the variety of expressive genres. The introduction ends with a definition of narrative.

scholarly journals Meanderings Around the Notion of ‘Contact’ in Reference to Languages, their Dynamics, and to ‘we’

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-548
Author(s):  
Robert Nicolaï
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Classical Sense ◽  
Communication Practices ◽  
As If

This paper is a linguistic, anthropological and philosophical exploration of language, with particular focus on language contact. The goal is not to address linguistic phenomena from a descriptive perspective, in the classical sense of the term, nor as if they were a “given”, and nothing further. Nor is the goal to craft a model. Instead it is an attempt to account for all relevant elements which (empirically) come into play in ordinary language use, considering them both in terms of language dynamics and in terms of language usage; this necessarily entails taking into consideration our own practices, as actors of communication and as builders of knowledge. We are ever stakeholders in this play (and its plays) because we are the ones who identify and/or attribute relevance. In other words, this text is a reflection on the (our) frameworks established through communication practices (frameworks which naturally have an impact on the form of our tools, including languages!) It highlights that the objectivization of phenomena which underlies our practices (whether academic or not) is closely dependent on the means by which we grasp the phenomena—this is nothing new but is worth noting afresh. Methodologically speaking, observing this point is an essential element in the elaboration of a theory to account for how phenomena are empirically grasped, and more particularly what it entails in the field of ‘language contact’.

scholarly journals Politeness and reputation in cultural evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Mühlenbernd ◽  
Sławomir Wacewicz ◽  
Przemysław Żywiczyński
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Order Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Stability ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Social Image ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Higher Order Theory ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary

AbstractPoliteness in conversation is a fascinating aspect of human interaction that directly interfaces language use and human social behavior more generally. We show how game theory, as a higher-order theory of behavior, can provide the tools to understand and model polite behavior. The recently proposed responsibility exchange theory (Chaudhry and Loewenstein in Psychol Rev 126(3):313–344, 2019) describes how the polite communications of thanking and apologizing impact two different types of an agent’s social image: (perceived) warmth and (perceived) competence. Here, we extend this approach in several ways, most importantly by adding a cultural-evolutionary dynamics that makes it possible to investigate the evolutionary stability of politeness strategies. Our analysis shows that in a society of agents who value status-related traits (such as competence) over reciprocity-related traits (such as warmth), both the less and the more polite strategies are maintained in cycles of cultural-evolutionary change.

scholarly journals An earlier role for intent in children’s partner choice versus punishment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Martin ◽  
Kyleigh Leddy ◽  
Liane Young ◽  
Katherine McAuliffe
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Partner Choice ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Equal Weight ◽  
Behavioral Differences ◽  
The Many ◽  
Insight Into

Among the many factors that influence our moral judgments, two are especially important: whether the person caused a bad outcome and whether they intended for it to happen. Notably, the weight accorded to these factors in adulthood varies by the type of judgment being made. For punishment decisions, intentions and outcomes carry relatively equal weight; for partner choice decisions (i.e., deciding whether or not to interact with someone again), intentions are weighted much more heavily. These behavioral differences in punishment and partner choice judgments may also reflect more fundamental differences in the cognitive processes supporting these decisions. Exploring how punishment and partner choice emerge in development provides important and unique insight into these processes as they emerge and mature. Here, we explore the developmental emergence of punishment and partner choice decisions in 4- to 9-year-old children. Given the importance of intentions for partner choice decisions¬–from both theoretical and empirical perspectives–we targeted the sensitivity of these two responses to others’ intentions as well as outcomes caused. Our punishment results replicate past work: young children are more focused on outcomes caused and become increasingly sensitive to intentions with age. In contrast, partner choice judgments exhibit sensitivity to intentions at an earlier age than punishment judgments, manifesting as earlier partner choice in cases of attempted violations. These results reveal distinct developmental trajectories for punishment and partner choice judgments, with implications for our understanding of the processes underlying these two responses as well as the development of moral judgment more broadly.

D. 41,2,3,21: Titulierte Besitzarten, Erwerbsgründeund das unum genus possidendi

2013 ◽  
Vol 81 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 527-559
Author(s):  
Eric H. Pool
Keyword(s):  
Roman Law ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Many

D. 41,2,3,21 turns on the issue of how possessio is to be divided. Understanding its content presupposes making a distinction that was self-evident for the Roman jurist but has never been made by later scholars of Roman law. They do not distinguish the varying ‘causes’ of possession (pro emptore … pro suo) which mark different types of lawful possession, and the ‘causes’ of acquisition (causae adquirendi) which justify obtaining possesion as by an owner. Taking a legally valid sale as an example the distinctive features of (possessio) pro emptore in contrast to emptio are established as well as their relevance for procedural practice. In particular there are no less than six forms of action in the law of inheritance for which these features are relevant. Next, the many negative effects of failing to make this distinction are indicated. There follows an in depth analysis and interpretation of the main phrases in Paul’s text: (i) quod nostrum non est; (ii) causae ad­­quirendi, in particular iustae causae traditionis; (iii) unum genus possidendi; (iv) species infinitae.

Daphnia as a Model for Eco-evolutionary Dynamics

2018 ◽  
pp. 403-424
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Walsh ◽  
Michelle Packer ◽  
Shannon Beston ◽  
Collin Funkhouser ◽  
Michael Gillis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Life History Evolution ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Evolutionary Forces ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
History Evolution ◽  
Ecological Importance ◽  
The Many

Much research has shown that variation in ecological processes can drive rapid evolutionary changes over periods of years to decades. Such contemporary adaptation sets the stage for evolution to have reciprocal impacts on the properties of populations, communities, and ecosystems, with ongoing interactions between ecological and evolutionary forces. The importance and generality of these eco-evolutionary dynamics are largely unknown. In this chapter, we promote the use of water fleas (Daphnia sp.) as a model organism in the exploration of eco-evolutionary interactions in nature. The many characteristics of Daphnia that make them suitable for laboratory study in conjunction with their well-known ecological importance in lakes, position Daphnia to contribute new and important insights into eco-evolutionary dynamics. We first review the influence of key environmental stressors in Daphnia evolution. We then highlight recent work documenting the pathway from life history evolution to ecology using Daphnia as a model. This review demonstrates that much is known about the influence of ecology on Daphnia life history evolution, while research exploring the genomic basis of adaptation as well as the influence of Daphnia life history traits on ecological processes is beginning to accumulate.

Mimicking Empire: Divine Administration in Isaiah

2019 ◽  
pp. 98-109
Author(s):  
Mark G. Brett
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Royal Ideology ◽  
The Many ◽  
Deuteronomic Code

The gōlāh-oriented vision of Ezra was opposed in the scroll of Isaiah, which in Isaiah 49–55 called for a reconciliation of Returnees and Remainees within Yhwh’s own empire. Identifying King Cyrus as a messiah in Isa 45:1 might well have sacrificed messianic hopes, but this is only an apparent concession to the ruling powers. Many of Isaiah’s texts have in fact mimicked the imperial administration in order to claim jurisdiction for Yhwh’s torah not only within the limited state imagined in the Deuteronomic Code but also across the many nations of the empire. Isaiah’s vision of peaceable rule interacts with some distinctive features of Iranian royal ideology, including the symbolism of royal parklands. Isaiah’s Eden theology mimics the Persian paradises, while envisaging the rule of God in a this-worldly eschatology.

Discourse, concepts, ideologies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Freeden
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Discourse Theory ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Communal Life ◽  
Discourse Studies ◽  
The Many ◽  
Micro Morphology ◽  
Analytical Frameworks

Abstract Two branches of discourse studies, critical discourse analysis (CDA) and discourse theory (DT), could benefit through extending their critical focus and incorporating findings and methodologies of neighbouring disciplines. While indebted to the attentiveness of CDA to ordinary language, ideology studies have by contrast developed interpretative, non-judgmental analytical frameworks that explore the many-faceted features of ideology, power, and the political. In turn, the macro-focus of DT on binary distinctions, articulatory equivalences, and the construction of hegemony through empty signifiers, overlooks the complex internal conceptual morphology that produces multiple ideological vocabularies. Through a layered filtering of texts, utterances, and linguistic intensities, ideological micro-morphology reveals processes of semantic decontestation in order to defend, alter or criticize political thought-practices. It illuminates the complex interrelationship between word and concept and accepts fantasies as ineluctable and decodable features of communal life. By reaching out beyond their disciplinary confines, the interplay of these parallel approaches could enrich the scholarly understanding of the political.

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