Niche construction and semiosis: biocultural and social dynamics

Abstract

Current developments in theoretical biology, among which niche construction theory is particularly salient, significantly depart from the neo-Darwinian synthesis that dominated 20th century biology, incorporating ecological and ontogenetic dimensions crucial for understanding human linguistic and cognitive evolution. Niche construction, in combination with the integration of ontogenetic development and evolution through enhanced epigenetic developmental plasticity, is the fundamental biological process by means of which cultural and social dynamics ‘captured’ human evolution. Language is a species-specific biocultural niche, which emerged in the transition from communicative signals to symbolic systems. Language is the fundamental constituent of the semiosphere, the semiotic dimension of the human biocultural complex, which is dynamically bound to the material-artefactual technosphere, and foundational to the social institutions whose elaboration drove the emergence of evolutionary modern languages. The human language capacity is not innate, although there are innate adaptations favouring language acquisition in the evolved biocultural niche of infancy.