Seite 8: Level formation

Many linguists argue that a representation system is only a language when it also features a complex syntax. In the experiments discussed so far, there was no syntax yet, although there is a steadily increasing and adaptive lexicon, phonology and meaning repertoire. All the ingredients are therefore in place of a protolanguage . Although syntax is obviously important, these other aspects of language are just as crucial and no theory of the origins of language is complete without explaining how they might evolve. Nevertheless the origins of syntax is an essential part of the problem and it must be addressed. I hypothesise that level formation is the key towards solving it.

Level formation is very common in biosystems. It occurs when there are a number of independent units which due to co-occurrence develop a symbiotic relationship, eventually making the units no longer independent. Level formation has for example been used to explain the formation of cells and the origin of chromosomes which group individual genes. In the case of the cell, there were initially free floating organisms and structures which came to depend on each other, for example because one organism produces products for another one or destroys lethal products. Gradually the relationship between these organisms and structures becomes so strong that they give up some of their independence to become a fixed part of the whole. For example, mitochondria are organisms with their own genetic information that used to be independent but are now so much intertwined with the cell that they need the genetic information in the nucleus to duplicate. Thus a new unit at a new level is created which itself then can start to form part of larger units.

Experiments for applying these principles to the formation of syntactic units are currently in progress. The following steps are seen:

1. The starting point are individual words as originating from the meaning creation and lexicon formation processes discussed earlier. These words get preferred semantic functions and therefore fall into (emergent) grammatical categories. For example, some words, like the white tables pick out the main target set, others, like white in the same phrase carve out a subset from this set, others like -s indicate that several objects are involved, etc. Initially the function of a word is undifferentiated but based on the actual use of a word and group dynamics, words become specialised. For example white may become only used for delineating a subset from an already defined set.

2. Words with different functions naturally co-occur in recurrent constellations. Thus an indication that several objects from a set are referred to, requires that first such a set is identified.

3. These constellations then become conventionalised, meaning that some functions become obligatory and hence words of a certain category have to be there.

4. The functions then become gramatically codified using word order and/or morphology. This makes it possible to derive grammatical functions of words even if they have multiple uses or if the function of a word is not yet known.

Once these basic principles are in place, the syntactic level may undergo various additional evolutionary processes on its own. For example, in some very interesting experiments, Hashimoto and Ikegami have already shown that there can be evolution towards greater grammatical complexity (from regular grammars to context-sensitive grammars) based on language games which select for producability and parsability.

Much further work remains to be done for syntax but the same mechanisms as used for lexicon formation, meaning creation and emergent phonologies appear to be applicable. The principle of level formation needs to be better understood - but this is also true for biological instances of level formation.