Language Origins: From Mythology to Science

252 Pages·2018·2.282 MB·

by  Przemysław Żywiczyński

Dis/Continuities 18 Dis/Continuities
Torun´ Studies in Language, Torun´ Studies in Language,
Literature and Culture 18 i Literature and Culture 18
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Przemysław Z˙ywiczyn´ski w
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Language Origins m
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The science of language evolution appeared at the end of the last century but top- r
P Language Origins
ically belongs to language origins – the domain of investigation that is concerned
with the beginnings and diversification of language. Language evolution as a e
research area contrasts with the antiquity of language origins, which can be traced c
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back to the earliest forms of traditional reflection. Language evolution emphasises e From Mythology to Science
its scientific orientation, whereas throughout most of its history language origins ci
constituted a complex mixture of mythology, philosophy of language, as well as S
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religiously and scientifically inspired speculation. This work is the first book-long
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attempt to document the whole history of language origins and situate language y
evolution in this wide intellectual context. g
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The Author M
Przemysław Z˙ywiczyn´ski is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the Department m
of English, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun´, Poland. He is Co-founder and
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Head of the Center for Language Evolution Studies as well as Vice-President of the r
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Polish Society for Human and Evolutionary Studies.
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ISBN 978-3-631-75603-4
DISC_018 275603_Zywiczynski_CR_A5HCk 151x214 fusion.indd 1 26.07.18 09:16
Language Origins
DIS/CONTINUITIES
TORU STUDIES IN LANGUAGE,
LITERATURE AND CULTURE
Ń
Edited by Mirosława Buchholtz
Advisory Board
Leszek Berezowski (Wrocław University)
Annick Duperray (University of Provence)
Dorota Guttfeld (Nicolaus Copernicus University)
Grzegorz Koneczniak (Nicolaus Copernicus University)
Piotr Skrzypczak (Nicolaus Copernicus University)
Jordan Zlatev (Lund University)
Vol. 18
Przemysław ywiczy ski
Ż ń
Language Origins
From Mythology to Science
Bibliographic Information published by the
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication
in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic
data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Zywiczynski, Przemyslaw, author.
Title: Language origins : from mythology to science / Przemyslaw
Zywiczynski.
Description: Berlin : Peter Lang Edition, 2018. | Series: Dis/continuities,
ISSN 2193-4207 ; vol. 18 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018024079 | ISBN 9783631756034
Subjects: LCSH: Language and languages--Origin.
Classification: LCC P116 .Z95 2018 | DDC 401--dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2018024079

ISSN 2193-4207
ISBN 978-3-631-75603-4 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-75777-2 (E-PDF)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-75778-9 (EPUB)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-75779-6 (MOBI)
DOI 10.3726/b14208
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Berlin 2018
All rights reserved.

Peter Lang – Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles ·
New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law,
without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and
liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions,
translations, microfilming, and storage and processing
in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
Rewiewers
Prof. Piotr. Stalmaszczyk
Prof. Aleksander Szwedek

www.peterlang.com
Bibliographic Information published by the Acknowledgements
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication
in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic
data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. This book owes a great deal to a great many people. I am deeply indebted to
Prof. Piotr Stalmaszczyk and Prof. Aleksander Szwedek, who took on the burden
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
of reviewing the book and whose numerous comments significantly improved

Names: Zywiczynski, Przemyslaw, author. its quality. My warm thanks go to friends and colleagues – Prof. Rafał Michalski,
Title: Language origins : from mythology to science / Przemyslaw Dr. Maciej Pokornowski, Dr. Rafał Toczko, Marta Sibierska and Dr. Sławomir
Zywiczynski.
Wacewicz – who familiarised themselves with the manuscript and generously
Description: Berlin : Peter Lang Edition, 2018. | Series: Dis/continuities,
offered advice. I thank Dr. John Kearns for untiring proofreading and expert edi-
ISSN 2193-4207 ; vol. 18 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018024079 | ISBN 9783631756034 torial guidance. I want to express gratitude to Prof. Mirosława Buchholtz, Editor
Subjects: LCSH: Language and languages--Origin. of Peter Lang’s series Dis/Continuties and Head of the Department of English at
Classification: LCC P116 .Z95 2018 | DDC 401--dc23 LC record available at
Nicolaus Copernicus University, who kindly agreed for this book to appear in
https://lccn.loc.gov/2018024079
the series and enthusiastically supported the writing and publication process. I
also would like to acknowledge Prof. Przemysław Nehring for the financial sup-
ISSN 2193-4207 port that made its publication possible. I owe the greatest debt to Monika Boruta,
ISBN 978-3-631-75603-4 (Print)
without whose careful reading and editorial help the completion of this work
E-ISBN 978-3-631-75777-2 (E-PDF)
would have been difficult, if not impossible.
E-ISBN 978-3-631-75778-9 (EPUB)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-75779-6 (MOBI)
DOI 10.3726/b14208
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Berlin 2018
All rights reserved.

Peter Lang – Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles ·
New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law,
without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and
liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions,
translations, microfilming, and storage and processing
in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
Rewiewers
Prof. Piotr. Stalmaszczyk
Prof. Aleksander Szwedek

www.peterlang.com
5

Contents
Introduction .............................................................................................................11
0.1 Motivation for the book .................................................................................13
0.2 Organisation of the material .........................................................................14
0.3 Methodological problems ..............................................................................16
0.4 Main sources ....................................................................................................17
1 Divine origins of language and languages ...........................................19
1.1 Glottogonic myths ..........................................................................................19
1.2 Glossogenetic myths .......................................................................................22
2 The problem of the Adamic language ....................................................29
2.1 Definition of the Adamic problem and its textual basis ...........................29
2.2 The Kabbalah ...................................................................................................31
2.3 The forbidden experiment .............................................................................34
2.4 Dante’s “illustrious vernacular” ....................................................................37
2.5 Etymological eccentricities ............................................................................40
2.6 Babel reinterpreted .........................................................................................47
2.7 Beyond Adam and Babel ...............................................................................51
3 Language and language origins in ancient and
medieval philosophy ......................................................................................55
3.1 Plato’s mimetic naturalism ............................................................................55
3.2 Aristotle’s linguistic conventionalism and objectivism ............................59
3.3 Epicureans and Stoics on language and its origin .....................................62
3.4 The problem of universals .............................................................................66
3.5 Augustine’s linguistic scepticism ..................................................................69
3.6 Aquinas and the speculative grammarians .................................................71
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4 Naturalistic glottogony .................................................................................77
4.1 Epicurean inspirations ...................................................................................77
4.2 The search for a new definition of humankind ..........................................81
4.3 Lord Monboddo’s scientific speculations ....................................................90
4.4 Empiricists vs. rationalists and the problem of language .........................92
4.5 The Mandeville-Condillac thought-experiment ....................................100
4.6 Rousseau on human evolution ..................................................................108
4.7 Herder on representations and language origins ....................................112
4.8 Les Idéologues ..............................................................................................119
5 Linguistics, Darwinism and the twilight of
traditional language origins ...................................................................123
5.1 Humboldt’s conception of language as activity .......................................125
5.2 The rise of comparative philology ............................................................132
5.2.1 Comparative philology, biology and Darwinism .........................134
5.2.2 Comparative philology and language origins ...............................137
5.3 Darwin on linguistic change, anthropogenesis and the
origin of language .......................................................................................144
5.4 How language origins became a taboo: from bans on
glottogonic speculation to de Saussure ....................................................153
5.5 Jespersen’s plea against the taboo .............................................................158
5.6 Tylor’s natural language and the orofacial hypothesis ...........................162
6 The science of language evolution ........................................................169
6.1 Linguistics, gesture studies and language origins ...................................169
6.2 The Chomskyan factor ...............................................................................175
6.3 The empirical factor....................................................................................178
6.3.1 Primate ethology and ape language experiments ........................178
6.3.2 Genetics .............................................................................................180
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6.3.3 Palaeoanthropology and archaeology ...........................................182
6.3.4 Neuroscience.....................................................................................184
6.4 Modern evolutionism: the Kuhnian factor..............................................186
6.5 The science of language evolution: a new era of language origins .......190
6.6 SLE’s characteristics ....................................................................................193
6.7 Terminological conundrums .....................................................................197
6.8 In what sense is the science of language evolution a science? ..............198
Concluding remarks ........................................................................................203
References .............................................................................................................205
List of figures and tables ................................................................................239
Index of names ...................................................................................................241
Index of subjects ................................................................................................245
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