Emotional and Interactional Prosody across Animal Communication Systems: A Comparative Approach to the Emergence of Language

Frontiers in Psychology

Piera Filippi¹ 

关键词: language evolution;    musical protolanguage;    prosody;    interaction;    turn-taking;    arousal;    infant-directed speech;    entrainment;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01393

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Across a wide range of animal taxa, prosodic modulation of the voice can express emotional information and is used to coordinate vocal interactions between multiple individuals. Within a comparative approach to animal communication systems, I hypothesize that the ability for emotional and interactional prosody (EIP) paved the way for the evolution of linguistic prosody – and perhaps also of music, continuing to play a vital role in the acquisition of language. In support of this hypothesis, I review three research fields: (i) empirical studies on the adaptive value of EIP in non-human primates, mammals, songbirds, anurans, and insects; (ii) the beneficial effects of EIP in scaffolding language learning and social development in human infants; (iii) the cognitive relationship between linguistic prosody and the ability for music, which has often been identified as the evolutionary precursor of language.

【 授权许可】

CC BY