Evolutionary Pragmatics
Communicative Interaction and the Origins of Language
Published on 22. July 2025
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-0-19-287120-6 (ISBN)
Description
This volume explores the new interdisciplinary field of evolutionary pragmatics, which encompasses research on both the evolution of abilities needed for pragmatics and the role of pragmatics in the evolution of language. The biological evolution of linguistic capacities and the cultural evolution of natural languages were both driven by the communicative interactions of our ancestors; since these communicative interactions are the province of pragmatics, evolutionary pragmatics is the cornerstone of the study of the evolution of language.
The chapters in this volume investigate a wide range of pragmatic topics from an evolutionary perspective, including reference, ambiguity, common ground, communicative intentions, and language conventions. The authors also examine a number of topics relating specifically to evolutionary pragmatics, ranging from baboon vocalizations and gestural communication in chimpanzees to formal models of the evolution of signalling systems and the co-evolution of pragmatics and grammar. The range of approaches adopted reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the field, with insights from linguistics, philosophy, psychology, and primatology.
The chapters in this volume investigate a wide range of pragmatic topics from an evolutionary perspective, including reference, ambiguity, common ground, communicative intentions, and language conventions. The authors also examine a number of topics relating specifically to evolutionary pragmatics, ranging from baboon vocalizations and gestural communication in chimpanzees to formal models of the evolution of signalling systems and the co-evolution of pragmatics and grammar. The range of approaches adopted reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the field, with insights from linguistics, philosophy, psychology, and primatology.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
649 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-287120-6 (9780192871206)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Bart Geurts is Professor of the Philosophy of Language and Logic at Radboud University, Nijmegen. His main research interests are in semantic and pragmatic theory, but he has also carried out experimental research and has published on topics related to language development, language change, reasoning, social cognition, and evolution. His many publications include Presupposition and Pronouns (Elsevier, 1999) and Quantity Implicatures (CUP, 2010).
Richard Moore is Associate Professor of Philosophy and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Warwick, having previously held positions at Humboldt University Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. His Communicative Mind research group conducts philosophical and empirical research on the relationship between communication and theory of mind in human and non-human great apes.
Richard Moore is Associate Professor of Philosophy and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Warwick, having previously held positions at Humboldt University Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. His Communicative Mind research group conducts philosophical and empirical research on the relationship between communication and theory of mind in human and non-human great apes.
Content
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Contributors
Introduction
1: Richard Moore: Intentions in human and non-human great ape communication
2: Suzanne Aussems;Richard Moore: Signal use and pragmatics in the first natural language users: Kinds of signs
3: Dorit Bar-On: Pragmatically intermediate protolanguage
4: Daniel W. Harris: Gricean communication, natural language, and human evolution
5: Josh Armstrong: The evolutionary foundations of common ground
6: Kirsty E. Graham;Catherine Hobaiter: Pragmatics in ape gesture
7: Paula Rubio-Fernandez: Cultural evolutionary pragmatics: An empirical approach to the relation between language and social cognition
8: Bob van Tiel;Bart Geurts: Conventions, coordination, and arbitrariness
9: Roland Muehlenbernd;Andreas Baumann: Population-level models of evolutionary pragmatics
10: Bart Geurts: Normative pragmatics and social structures: an evolutionary perspective
11: Eva Wittenberg;Ray Jackendoff: The co-evolution of pragmatics and grammatical complexity
References
Index
List of Tables
List of Contributors
Introduction
1: Richard Moore: Intentions in human and non-human great ape communication
2: Suzanne Aussems;Richard Moore: Signal use and pragmatics in the first natural language users: Kinds of signs
3: Dorit Bar-On: Pragmatically intermediate protolanguage
4: Daniel W. Harris: Gricean communication, natural language, and human evolution
5: Josh Armstrong: The evolutionary foundations of common ground
6: Kirsty E. Graham;Catherine Hobaiter: Pragmatics in ape gesture
7: Paula Rubio-Fernandez: Cultural evolutionary pragmatics: An empirical approach to the relation between language and social cognition
8: Bob van Tiel;Bart Geurts: Conventions, coordination, and arbitrariness
9: Roland Muehlenbernd;Andreas Baumann: Population-level models of evolutionary pragmatics
10: Bart Geurts: Normative pragmatics and social structures: an evolutionary perspective
11: Eva Wittenberg;Ray Jackendoff: The co-evolution of pragmatics and grammatical complexity
References
Index