Date of Award
Spring 4-20-2011
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Philosophy
First Advisor
Andrea Scarantino
Second Advisor
George Graham
Third Advisor
Michael Owren
Abstract
Grice (1982) and Bar-On and Green (2010) each provide 'continuity stories' which attempt to explain how a human-like language could emerge from the primitive communication practices of non-human animals. I offer desiderata for a proper account of linguistic continuity in order to argue that these previous accounts fall short in important ways. I then introduce the recent evolutionary literature on non-cooperative communication in order to construct a continuity story which better satisfies the proposed desiderata while retaining the positive aspects of the proposals of Grice and Bar-On and Green. The outcome of this project is a more tenable and empirically investigable framework chronicling the evolution of human-like language from communicative abilities currently found in non-human animals.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/2001770
Recommended Citation
Beighley, Steven M., "Non-Cooperative Communication and the Origins of Human Language." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2011.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/2001770