Towards a Phylogeny of Human Language

Abstract

Studying the evolutionary origin of any biological feature must rely on a good comprehension of the phylogenetic context which is relevant to that feature. Exceptional traits such as human language are not likely to make exception to that very general principle. Here we outline a multiple-resolution phylogenetic context for Homo sapiens, make some remarks on its relevance, and present the expatiation hypothesis by palaeoanthropologist Ian Tattersall on the origin of human language, with some further remarks.