Language and Communication

Abstract

Communication, and particularly linguistic communication, is a central component of human social life. There is a great deal of research on the origins and evolution of human communication and language, but less on how an evolutionary perspective can inform research on the social cognition and other proximate mechanisms involved in language and communication. In this chapter, I outline what an evolutionary perspective can tell us about these topics. In particular, I discuss: (1) how human communication is ultimately a matter of mutually assisted mind reading and mental manipulation, (2) what proximate mechanisms can explain why languages are structured in the way they are, (3) evidence that human communicative behavior is adaptive, and (4) both proximate and ultimate explanations of the evolutionary stability of human communication.