Among those who theorize about the evolution of language, there are several camps, including those who argue that language evolved slowly from primate gesture-calls, and those who surmise that syntax is so complicated that it must have come from a single genetic mutation. Robbins Burling agrees fully with neither and argues that language is a separate system from gesture-calls, but that language did evolve slowly through natural and sexual selection. He invites us to look at the social uses of language and the cultural value of its complicated, embellished nature.
The book is divided into eleven intricately linked chapters that loop back and forth through Burling's main arguments as well as the supporting evidence from the fields of anthropology, linguistics, and animal communication. The book is written for a broad audience and does not distract readers with footnotes or in-text citations, but notes for each chapter are given at the back of the book, along with a long reference list.
Burling's evidence for the unrelatedness of animal calls to human language rests on two points. The first is that humans still have a gesture-call system that is homologous to the primate one. Direct parallels such as human smiling and chimps' silent bared-teeth displays, both of which are used to manage social relationships, are evident. This shared system makes communication possible between humans who speak mutually unintelligible languages, or in fact, between humans and primates. Burling finds vestiges of primate gesture-calls in human facial expressions, gesticulation, cries and laughter, and the intonation of speech and tone of voice.
The second point on which this argument rests is Burling's assertion that gesture-calls and language are fundamentally different, in that the former is an analog signal while the latter is digital. By this, Burling means that gestures are “continuously variable” (p. 246); there are no sharp breaking points between gestures such as sobs, giggles, and laughs. On the other hand, linguistic units such as phonemes are discrete, having no gray areas between them. Digital signals can more easily contrast with one another and can be combined to form a large number of different, meaningful units.
To argue his second stance on the rate of evolution of language, Burling discusses the probable advantages of traits that contributed to language development. These include high comprehension ability, which he argues drove linguistic development. Another is upright posture, which bent human vocal tracts to allow them to produce a wider range of vowels than other primates can. Others include the ability to learn or imitate – based on the ability to discern others' intentions, thoughts, and actions – and the ability to engage in joint attention.
Burling also argues that language was in many ways an evolutionary indulgence of the species; like the peacock's cumbersome but brilliant feathers, it is a trait more linked to culture than to survival or technology. To all readers who are curious about language, culture, and society, this book offers a wealth of evidence, in readable terms, about the emergence and purposes of language among people past and present.
