The study of language evolution and learning addresses the complex interplay between cultural dynamics and biological predispositions in shaping human communication. Researchers employ experimental ...

RESEARCH on the evolution of language suggests that our communication is largely about cooperation. When we speak with each other, the idea goes, we do so to help coordinate our actions. Antelope ...

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...

Why do we talk the way we do? It might trace back to when our ancient ancestors left the jungle for the open savanna. Somewhere between 5.3 million and 16 million years ago, Africa's landscapes ...

A new Science paper challenges the idea that language stems from a single evolutionary root. Instead, it proposes that our ability to communicate evolved through the interaction of biology and culture ...

Glenn Hadikin is a trustee of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL). Words are often seen as the building blocks of languages. But as children we don’t learn lists of words like we ...

The origins of human language remain mysterious. Are we the only animals truly capable of complex speech? Are Homo sapiens the only hominids who could give detailed directions to a far-off freshwater ...

Wild chimpanzees alter the meaning of single calls when embedding them into diverse call combinations, mirroring linguistic operations in human language. Human language, however, allows an infinite ...

The loss of certain muscles in the human larynx may have helped give our species a voice, a new study suggests. By Oliver Whang Read this sentence aloud, if you’re able. As you do, a cascade of motion ...

For more than 150 years ago, the assumption that language is a singular event has hampered progress in explaining its evolution. Another obstacle was the failure to recognize that certain social ...