Linguistics Seminar - Chimpanzee food calling: implications for the evolution of human semanticity

Speaker: Simon Townsend, University of Warwick

The emergence of human language is arguably one of the major evolutionary transitions in the history of life, though elucidating its origins is non-trivial. Unpacking the phylogenetic roots of language, through investigating the communication skills of non-human primates, can, however, shed important light on the evolution of key linguistic features. Over the last 50 years, a number of studies have demonstrated that primates are capable of producing vocalisations that refer to objects and events in the external world. Whilst these so called ‘Functionally-Referential Calls’ (FRCs) have been argued to represent potential precursors to the semantic vocal labels used in human language, key differences between primate and human referential abilities persist. Specifically, very few studies have investigated the proximate psychological mechanisms underlying the production of these calls and whether, as in language, producers have flexible control over the use and acoustic structure of FRCs. Over the last 5 years we have systematically addressed this question in the functionally referential food calls of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Using observational and experimental techniques, in both the wild and captivity, we have begun to demonstrate that chimpanzee food calling is not hardwired and reflexive, but flexibly used and modifiable, at the structural level, through social learning. These data indicate that the similarities between human and chimpanzee referential abilities transcend the surface level and suggest the cognitive building blocks underpinning human semanticity may be evolutionarily more ancient than previously thought.

Time: 4pm, Wednesday 16th November 2016

Venue: Room G10, Chandler House, 2 Wakefield St, London WC1N