The Origin of Speech Note ThisisthetenthbooktoappearintheOUPseriesStudiesintheEvolution of Language, the general editors of which are James R. Hurford and KathleenR.Gibson.Acompletelistoftitlespublishedandinpreparation for the series can be found at the end of the book. The Origin of Speech Peter F. MacNeilage 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein OxfordNewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork (cid:1)PeterF.MacNeilage2008 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2008byOxfordUniversityPress Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd,www.biddles.co.uk ISBN978–0–19–923650–3 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Contents ListofFigures vii ListofTables viii Acknowledgments ix PartI Introduction 1 Background:theintellectualcontext 3 2 Gettingtotheexplanationofspeech 29 PartII Speechanditsorigin:theframe/contenttheory 3 Thenatureofmodernhominidspeech 65 4 Speechindeeptime:howspeechgotstarted 88 PartIII Therelationbetweenontogenyandphylogeny 5 Ontogenyandphylogeny1:theframestage 105 6 Ontogenyandphylogeny2:theframe/contentstage 121 7 Theoriginofwords:howframe-stagepatternsacquiredmeanings 135 PartIV Brainorganizationandtheevolutionofspeech 8 Evolutionofbrainorganizationforspeech:background 163 9 Adualbrainsystemfortheframe/contentmode 184 10 Evolutionofcerebralhemisphericspecializationforspeech 200 PartV Theframe/contenttheoryandgenerativelinguistics 11 Generativephonologyandtheoriginofspeech 223 12 Generativephonologyandtheacquisitionofspeech 243 vi Contents PartVI Aperspectiveonspeechfrommanualevolution 13 Anamodalphonology?Implicationsoftheexistence ofsignlanguage 273 PartVII Lastthings 14 Ultimatecausesofspeech:genesandmemes 293 15 Conclusions 320 References 335 Index 365 Figures Fig.1.1 Chomsky’sUniversalGrammaranditsrelationtoother aspectsoflanguage 26 Fig.2.1 ComparisonofthegenerativeandtheNeodarwinianview oftherelationbetweennatureandnurtureforlanguage 47 Fig.3.1 Schematicviewofthethreesubsystemsofspeech: respiratory,phonatory,andarticulatory 66 Fig.3.2 Theprincipalpartsofthearticulatorysystem 69 Fig.3.3 Jackendoff’scharacterizationofthesegmental structureoftheword‘‘star’’ 74 Fig.3.4 Formantfrequenciesfor8Americanvowels 78 Fig.3.5 Schematicviewofaspectsofspeechintheword‘‘tomato’’ 79 Fig.3.6 Linguisticstructureofthesyllable 80 Fig.5.1 Schematicviewofthearticulatorycomponentofspeech 111 Fig.7.1 Schematicviewsoftheconfigurationofthesoft palatefornasalandoralsounds 151 Fig.8.1 Schematicleft-lateralviewofthebrain 164 Fig.8.2 Schematicleft-lateralviewofthecerebralcortex 166 Fig.8.3 Wise’sconceptionofcorticalregionsinvolvedin motorcontrolinthemonkey 169 Fig.9.1 Schematicviewofthecorticalorganizationofspeechproduction 196 Fig.11.1 VenndiagramshowingAnderson’sviewoftherelationbetween phonologyandothersubdisciplinesconcernedwithspeech 229 Fig.12.1 Threeconceptualizationsofthedevelopment ofthelabial–coronalsequenceeffect 251 Fig.12.2 Twoalternativedescriptionsofinfants’simplified versionsofadultwords 260 Fig.13.1 Distributionofspokenbabblingonsettimesin51infants 279 Fig.14.1 Illustrationsofbirdsongs 300 Fig.14.2 Cypriotstonefigure,thoughttobeofAphrodite,3rd millenniumbc 315 Tables Table3.1 PhoneticsymbolsforEnglishconsonantsandwordsin whichtheyoccur 70 Table3.2 PhoneticsymbolsforEnglishvowelsandwordsinwhich theyoccur 73 Table3.3 Occurrenceofmajorconsonanttypesin317-languagesample 75 Table3.4 Occurrenceofvowelsinparticularlocationsinthevowelspace 76 Table3.5 Percentageoftimesthatparticularsoundsoccurredin theMaddieson(1994)corpus 77 Table5.1 Meanobserved-to-expectedratiosofCVsequencesin sixEnglishbabblinginfants 112 Table6.1 Meanobserved-to-expectedratiosofVCsequencesinfirst wordsoftenEnglish-speakinginfants 124 Table7.1 Therelationbetweenobservedandexpectedfrequencies forconsonant–vowelrelationshipsinCVCVformsfrom Ferguson’scorpusofbabytalkterms 140 Table7.2 Observed-to-expectedratiosofCVsequencesinMurdock’s 1959studyofparentaltermsof474languages 142 Table7.3 Observedtoexpectedco-occurrencepatternsinCV sequencesandVCsequencesinPaine’ssampleofparental termsin211languages 143 Table7.4 Examplesof‘‘defective’’wordforms 156 Acknowledgments Thisbookhasbeenalongtimeinthemaking,andIhavebenefitedfrom a rich and complex support network, which I am supremely grateful for. My first thanks must go to Gardner Lindzey, long-time mentor, friend, tennis partner, and master of repartee, particularly for his support in having Bjorn Lindblom, Michael Studdert-Kennedy, and me together at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences to consider our early ideas about the evolution of speech in an idyllic yet intellectually stimulating setting. An enormous thank-you goes to my close friend and personal editor, John Trimble, for heroic midwifery, and for his enthusiastic belief in the project. He and his wife, Jan, provided convivial conversation and boundless hospitality, making the task of expressing myself more lucidly a pleasurable one. Particular thanks goes to Babs Davis, former student, friend, and colleague, for harmonious collaboration in our long-term project on speech acquisition, the results of which form the empirical core of the book. I am really grateful for what we were able to accomplish together. And we could not have done what we did without the help of another formerstudent,ChrisMatyear,thecornerstoneoflaboperations.Thanks alsotoBabsandKrisztinaZajdo´ foreditingthebookTheSyllableinSpeech Production: Perspectives on the Frame/Content Theory. I am grateful to Randy Diehl for his willingness to share his expertise on speech perception, and to Richard Meier for his patient assistance in helping me to understand the nature of sign language, as well as for sharing his viewpoint on sign language, a perspective I am particularly sympathetic to. I am fortunate enough to have had Bjorn Lindblom to shareideaswithsince1963,andhispresenceattheUniversityofTexasfor prolongedperiodsoftimehasbeenacontinuedsourceofinspirationand conviviality. I have fond memories of the many dinners that he and his wife Ann Marie have kindly afforded me.