投稿者: Darwinの言語に対する評
今回はさらに単語の発生について見てみよう．
Max Muller on the other side, I cannot doubt that language owes its origin to the imitation and modification of various natural sounds, the voices of other animals, and man’s own instinctive cries, aided by signs and gestures. When we treat of sexual selection we shall see that primeval man, or rather some early progenitor of man, probably first used his voice in producing true musical cadences, that is in singing, as do some of the gibbon-apes at the present day; and we may conclude from a widely-spread analogy, that this power would have been especially exerted during the courtship of the sexes,—would have expressed various emotions, such as love, jealousy, triumph,—and would have served as a challenge to rivals. It is, therefore, probable that the imitation of musical cries by articulate sounds may have given rise to words expressive of various complex emotions.
Darwin (1871)
It is, therefore, probable that the imitation of musical cries by articulate sounds may have given rise to words expressive of various complex emotions.とあるようにDarwinは他の著名な研究者の文献を参照しつつ，音楽的な叫びの模倣が，さまざまな複雑な感情を表現する単語の発生につながった可能性が高いと書いている．
これも非常に興味深い．別の投稿で言語・音楽同一性命題（Identity Thesis for Language and Music）やShared Syntactic Integration Resource Hypothesis (音楽と言語の共有統語融合資源仮説)についてまとめていたが，そういった観点につながる視点だと言えるからである．
参考文献
- Darwin, C. (1871). The descent of man, and Selection in relation to sex. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2300/pg2300-images.html#link2HCH0003