Waller Bridget M, Liebal Katja, Burrows Anne M, Slocombe Katie E
Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK.
Evol Psychol. 2013 Jul 18;11(3):538-49. doi: 10.1177/147470491301100305.
Scientists studying the communication of non-human animals are often aiming to better understand the evolution of human communication, including human language. Some scientists take a phylogenetic perspective, where the goal is to trace the evolutionary history of communicative traits, while others take a functional perspective, where the goal is to understand the selection pressures underpinning specific traits. Both perspectives are necessary to fully understand the evolution of communication, but it is important to understand how the two perspectives differ and what they can and cannot tell us. Here, we suggest that integrating phylogenetic and functional questions can be fruitful in better understanding the evolution of communication. We also suggest that adopting a multimodal approach to communication might help to integrate phylogenetic and functional questions, and provide an interesting avenue for research into language evolution.
研究非人类动物交流的科学家们常常旨在更好地理解人类交流（包括人类语言）的进化。一些科学家采用系统发育的视角，其目标是追溯交流特征的进化历史，而另一些科学家则采用功能视角，目标是理解支撑特定特征的选择压力。要全面理解交流的进化，这两种视角都是必要的，但理解这两种视角的差异以及它们能告诉我们什么和不能告诉我们什么很重要。在此，我们认为将系统发育和功能问题结合起来，对于更好地理解交流的进化可能富有成效。我们还认为，采用多模态的交流方法可能有助于整合系统发育和功能问题，并为语言进化研究提供一个有趣的途径。
