Psychology 2134A/B Lecture Notes - Animal Language, Language Development, Cognitive Development

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2134A/B
• Professor: Olessia Jouravlev

Document Summary

Where did language come from: there is no way of providing a credible theory on the invention of language. Language involved from earlier prehistoric language system from our prehistoric primates. Origin of language: continuity theory: language evolved from pre-languistic systems of primates, discontinuity theory: language appeared suddenly during the course of evolution. Imitation theories: language evolved from the imitations of sounds found in nature, associate sounds with animals to name and or reference to them: gestural theory: human language evolved from gestures. Started creating more and more tools, hands occupied had to find other methods of communicating because gestures require visibility: putting the baby down theory: mothers had to put their babies down to forage food. Had to find ways to communicate to reassure them. Language is defined as a set of symbols that are used to communicate to convey some idea.