Origin of language
The origin of language (also Glottogonie ) is currently not datable time when man learned to express themselves linguistically in the Paläolinguistik. The theory of evolution provides for the development of language as a milestone in the development of man.
The theoretical explanations regarding the origin of language and the nature of the expired process differ significantly. Results of Zoosemiotik that provides opportunities for comparison between human languages and animal languages , form a basis of the respective theories.
Regarding the nature of the transaction argue the representatives of the natural sound theory and the theory of imitation. The latter assume that people initially imitated sounds ( onomatopoeic approach) in order to express themselves. The sound of nature theorists assume that the human species was originally served only the exclamation words.
The assumption of the origin of language was a unique event, ie Monoglottogenese (or monogenesis ) and includes the assumption of a single proto -world language. The polygenesis in turn assumes that several languages have formed at different times and in different places in the world and disseminated. In this way arose original languages from which emerged the modern languages.
Theories on the origin of language
Many great thinkers have dealt with theories on the origin of language. These include, for example, Johann Gottfried Herder ( On the Origin of Language, 1772), Jacob Grimm ( On the Origin of Language, 1851), Hajim stone Thal ( The origin of language in the context of the last issues of all knowledge, Berlin 1851) Lazarus Geiger ( the origin of Language, 1869 ) or Ludwig Noiré ( the origin of Language, 1877).
Herder took an onomatopoeic approach that was popular for a long time. For Jacob Grimm was the most important question of "whether we can view language as a created thing or uncreated. If the language were created by God, their first origin is absolutely impossible for us. But if it is uncreated, formed by the people themselves, then you can deal as a linguist with this question. "
Friedrich Max Müller rejected the onomatopoetic and interjektionalen theories of language development and named it ironically " construction -wow theory and Pah- pah- theory ". Ernst Cassirer rejected the theories from speculative.
Holistic language genesis theory
The Holistic language genesis theory, also known as complexity -before- simplicity -approach, is a theory for the evolutionary origins of human language.
It was founded in 1922 by Otto Jespersen and assumes, in contrast to the hitherto existing language genesis theories that language originally no discernible grammatical system or morphemes possessed, so she lacked the typical for today's human language compositionality.
Instead, it is assumed that language originally consisted of statements that capture a complete situation, such as " Come, let us hunt mammoths ." This statement then could not conclude that the utterance of " Come, let us hunt antelope " in some way contains similar components. Both statements are, according to this theory of language entirely unique and not resolvable into smaller units.
Jespersen believed that it is the early human proto-language is songs that were components of meaning over time, which was more sophisticated. Etc. Through association with certain songs or their singers with places arise from the proper name as the first word category, further onomatopoeia and finally transfers, sound shifts and other change processes both the environment and the language perfectly abstract concepts.
Another holistic approach is represented by the American linguist Alison Wray: So the holistic utterances were (whether as words or chants remains unnamed and is irrelevant ) for a long time and prevented by their presence, the creation of real words, as they were too specific and therefore not were handed down. Instead, developed late in systematic structures in the language, the first only very general terms (presumably verbs) could express. Since the holistic system was self-contained, it took a long time for the man replaced it with systematic language. This system has the great advantage to explain why human civilization occurred so late in the biological history of Homo sapiens, or why it came to a sudden progress of human evolution with the beginning of settled life. However, this can also be explained by the phenomenon of settled life itself, and many other approaches. Nevertheless, it is possible that language plays a fundamental role in the grounds of the historic civilization. Wray explains the emergence of a holistic language with the observation holistic expressions in primates, but remains a proof of Holistizität prima genetic communications systems guilty.
The holistic language genesis theories are compared with the constructivist language genesis theories.