How language began | Dan Everett | TEDxSanFrancisco

Dan Everett brings us back in time to Homo erectus to share how language began and why it is the ultimate evolutionary tool to share knowledge.

Dan Everett was born in Southern California. He completed an undergraduate degree in biblical studies from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and his master’s and ScD in linguistics at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil.

Since 1977, he has regularly conducted research on the Pirahã language of Brazil. He has also conducted research on Tzeltal (Mexico), Selish (USA), Arawan (Brazil), Satere (Brazil), Wari’ (Brazil) among many others. He has published 14 books and more than 110 articles, and he has lectured around the world on his research.

He converted to Christianity at 17 years of age and was a committed evangelical Christian until abandoning his faith due to lessons he learned from the Pirahãs (as discussed in book "Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes"). His most recent books are "Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious" (University of Chicago Press) and "How Language Began: The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention" (W.W. Norton/Liveright).

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

So we're here in the center of technology,

and I just wanted to ask
a simple question.

What was the greatest
technological discovery ever made,

the basis for all subsequent technology,

and when was it made?

The greatest technological breakthrough
of human beings is language,

invented 2 million years ago

in the first and greatest information age

by Homo erectus, mom and dad.

(Laughter)

Homo erectus was one
of the most successful creatures

to ever walk the Earth.

They lived on this planet
for nearly 2 million years.

We have so far lived on this planet

for a certain 200,000,
perhaps as many as 500,000.

So we haven't lived a quarter of the time
that Homo erectus lived on this planet.

Homo erectus was a marvelous creature.

It had the greatest brain
the world had ever seen,

maybe the universe had ever seen.

The range of size of the Homo erectus
brain was about 950 cc,

75% of the size of an adult
Homo sapiens male

and roughly in the range
of many Homo sapiens females -

and that proves to us
that size doesn't matter.

(Laughter)

The Homo erectus brain and body
were both phenomenal.

That was the first body -

Homo erectus stood
about as tall as we do.

They weighted probably around 150 pounds

and they were the first creatures
in the history of the universe

capable of persistent hunting.

Our bipedal gait enables us
to run long distances

and cool down more efficiently
than quadrupeds.

So, Homo erectus was actually
able to chase down its prey

until the prey either
died of heat exhaustion,

or Homo erectus beat it to death
with a stone axe or a club.

Homo erectus was a marvelous creature.

And they had many accomplishments.

Homo erectus made a variety of tools,
starting with the Olduwan tools.

And they kept these tools,
and they transported these tools,

and they improved these tools,

so that they had an upgrade:
Acheulean tools.

And they upgraded this to Levallois tools.

And each tool was better
than the one before.

But they weren't limited to stone tools.

Homo erectus also made spears,

wooden tools that we have found,
hundreds-of-thousands-year-old spears.

And they made two kinds of spears.

They made spears for throwing
and spears for thrusting.

What does a spear for thrusting mean?

It means you're a 5 foot 8 to 6 foot 1
Homo erectus male, 150 pounds,

and you run up and stick
that spear into a mastodon.

These were fierce creatures,
these were brave creatures,

and they were extremely
intelligent creatures.

So tools were one
of the great accomplishments

that lets us know what kind of brain
they were developing.

They also had representations of reality.

This is a 250,000 year-old

partially naturally-formed and
partially artificially-formed by humans,

by Homo erectus, Venus.

It's called the Venus of Berekhat Ram,

and there's some evidence
that it was dyed red in certain parts.

A shell found on the island of Java

with engravings on the shell
by Homo erectus.

Homo erectus wasn't simply a toolmaker.

They were boat makers.

They traveled the oceans
2 million years ago.

How do we know this?

Well, the first island that we find
evidence of Homo erectus

is the island of Flores in Indonesia,

which would have been about
a 24-mile boat trip, visible from land,

about the size of the English Channel,

except that Flores was, then and now,

surrounded by the most treacherous
and strongest ocean currents in the world.

They couldn't have swum to Flores.

They got there by boat.

This is actually the island of Flores,
and, it doesn't, you know -

I don't think Homo erectus
looked quite like that, but ...

(Laughter)

Archaeologists have
actually tried to simulate

the voyages of Homo Erectus
by making rafts

similar to the kinds of rafts
that Homo erectus would have made.

We know because of the amount of islands
that we find colonies of Homo erectus

that their getting to these islands
was more than coincidence.

We know by the size of the colonies
they must have had there

that multiple individuals
had to arrive about the same time

to start these colonies,

and we know therefore
that they had to plan.

So one was Flores.

Another was Socotra, then and now,

150 miles into the ocean
from the nearest land,

where we find Homo erectus colonies.

That requires imagination,

that sailing to something in exploration,

and Homo erectus seems to do this.

There's also evidence
that Homo erectus had colonies on Crete.

So Homo erectus was a seafarer,

Homo erectus was a toolmaker,

Homo erectus was
a very intelligent person,

but they did more than this.

Homo erectus also
traveled the world by land.

Homo erectus evolved
1.9 million years ago.

By 1.7 million years ago,
which is not very long,

they were already in Beijing,

they were in Indonesia,

they were in the Middle East,

they were in Europe.

Homo erectus traveled -

I won't be surprised when
the newspaper finally announces

that we have evidence
of Homo erectus in California

because if they could walk to Beijing
in a short period of time,

it was just a little hop,
skip, and a jump

up across the Bering Strait
down into the New World.

Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.

But their abilities show that they
were capable of a tremendous amount.

So now, it's not all good news,
there were some deficiencies.

Homo erectus had the vocal
apparatus of a gorilla.

They couldn't have made
all the sounds that we make.

They would have had a range of sounds
more like what a gorilla could make.

Is that a big deal when it comes
to language? Well, no, it isn't.

There are many languages today
that have less than twelve sounds,

here's one:

(Speaking in Pirahã)

That's one of the languages I've worked on
in the Amazon over the past 40 years,

Pirahã, and it only has ten sounds
if you're a woman

and eleven sounds if you're a man.

And with eleven sounds, you can produce
a fully functioning human language.

So was erectus capable of eleven sounds?

Well, they didn't even need
to be capable of eleven sounds.

You can type anything you can communicate
in English into your computer.

You can type it in Microsoft Word
or whatever program that you use,

and when you do that,
how many letters does a computer use?

Well ultimately, a computer only uses
two letters, two sounds: 0 and 1,

and with those sounds,
you can communicate anything.

So erectus, theoretically,

only needed to be able to make
two sounds to communicate.

Our ancestors were the first
and only talking gorillas,

with the anatomy that they had.

Their brains not only were smaller,

they were somewhat slower
than ours by the evidence,

their childhood development
was faster than ours,

which is a disadvantage cognitively

because our children have
more time to develop -

I think it's about 30 years now -

(Laughter)

and they are able to put into place
all sorts of cognitive mechanisms.

When I tell this joke in college,
nobody laughs, but ...

(Laughter)

But we know.

So Homo erectus had
advantages and disadvantages,

but the most important thing
is that none of the disadvantages

would've kept it from language
and the accomplishments we see.

Right now, scientists are excavating
a Homo erectus village,

about 750,000 years old,

in Gesher Benot Ya'aqov
in modern-day Israel.

And we find that this village
is organized hierarchically.

There's a section of the village
for processing animal products,

a section of the village
for processing plant products,

another section of the village
where we find evidence of the habitation.

So, they not only built villages,
they built them in a structured manner.

So they were capable
of hierarchical thought,

they were capable of planning,
they were capable of imagination.

What makes language?

What was lacking for them
to have language?

A language is just,
in essence, two things:

symbols and grammar.

And how many symbols do you need,
and how much grammar do you need?

What's a symbol, first of all?

Charles Sanders Peirce,

a philosopher from the United States
who lived over a hundred years ago,

defined three kinds of signs:

Indexes, which are signs

that are physically connected
to what they represent.

So, you go outside, you smell smoke,
you know there's a fire.

Smoke is an index of fire.

You see a footprint, that's an index.

And the next sign -

So, all animals need signs.

Our five senses evolved for us
to be able to read indexes.

Without indexes
and the ability to read them,

we can't function in the world.

The next kind of sign is an icon -

there's no physical connection,
but there is a physical resemblance.

The figure of Berekhat Ram, the Venus,
that I showed earlier, that is an icon.

The Mona Lisa is an icon.

The cross in Christianity started off
as an icon and has become a symbol.

So you get this.

So, what is a symbol then?

The symbol is conventionally

a sign that is conventionally
or culturally connected to its meaning.

So, take the number four: f-o-u-r,
or hold up my fingers "four."

That means what?

It means a cardinality of four,
we have to keep talking in English,

but four is a culturally-determined form

and a culturally-determined meaning.

Not all languages have mathematics.

Piraha, for example,
doesn't have even the number one.

There are no mathematical concepts
in that language whatsoever.

So math is a cultural discovery,

if not a cultural construct,

and not everyone has math in that sense.

So the symbols for math
are culturally determined.

Symbols are culturally determined.

The next thing we need
to have a language -

and here's a fascinating fact -

When Peirce said that indexes come first,
or more simple, and then icons,

and then symbols,

he inadvertently, indirectly predicted
exactly what we find

in the archaeological record.

So indexes all creatures have.

Those are 5 billion years old
or however long life's been on Earth,

closer to 4 billion.

But, when did the first icon,

the first image,

appear in the archaeological record?

Well, we have to go back 3 million years,

which is not that far back,

to Australopithecus africanus.

And we find in a cave of Australopithecus,

the Makapansgat cave
of Australopithecus in South Africa,

a small, little two-inch by three-inch
stone called the Makapansgat pebble

or the Makapansgat manuport
because it was carried to the cave,

and some Australopithecus recognized
on this little stone a human face.

It looks like the original
smiley face T-shirt.

And Australopithecus
was fascinated by this.

We know that because they
carried it from miles away

and took it to their cave
and kept it there.

Now, it's possible it was a coincidence,

maybe they got
it stuck between their toes.

But two inches by three inches

is a bit big for even
Australopithecus toes.

So they seem to have carried it there
because of what it represented.

So first, we see icons -

first, we see indexes,
then we see icons,

and next we see symbols.

So, what can a symbol be?

Think of a shovel.

Often when people talk about symbols
they think of abstract art,

but abstract art
isn't necessary for symbols.

Think of a shovel.

A shovel is a tool,
but when we see a shovel,

we think of labor,

we think of blisters,

we think of gardening,

we think of our family -

all sorts of memories.

The shovel becomes a symbol
for a series of cultural values.

The tools that erectus used
were easily understood as symbols.

In the way that they were
taken care of, they represented it.

In fact, we find a special
hand axe, Excalibur,

a colored quartz hand axe
buried in an erectus burial site

that indicates that they saw in this tool,

as I'm saying, something symbolic.

So, they had symbols,
they had the capability for symbols,

they had planning,
they had hierarchical reasoning,

they had ordered thought.

So they needed a grammar.

So what kinds
of grammars are there?

Well, there is one popular
theory of grammar

by someone I will not mention,

but this particular theory of grammar
is a little more elaborate than we need.

I have identified three kinds of grammar

in my field research
over the last 40 years.

One I'll call G1, the next one is G2,
and the last one, very originally, is G3.

G1 grammars are just
grammars in linear order.

We have examples of this in English:

"You drink, you drive, you go to jail."

"No shirt, no shoes, no service."

It's just words in order.

But the next kind
of grammar, a G2 grammar -

and let me point out

that there are modern languages,
such as Riau of Indonesia and Pirahã,

in which serious psycholinguists
have argued that their grammars

are this G1 type -
just words in linear order.

A G2 grammar has hierarchy,

so "If you drink and you drive,
then you go to jail."

You take the words
and you make a larger sentence.

And a G3 grammar has
hierarchy and recursion:

"If you drink and drive
and know you shouldn't do that

because your wife's going to get upset

because her father told you
the last time you did

he was never going
to give you bond money again,"

and you can just keep on going.

Those kinds of grammars are found
commonly in the world's languages,

but you can express anything
from a G3 grammar in a G1 grammar;

mathematically they're all of equal power.

So, once you have symbols
and a G1 grammar

you have language,
full-blown human language.

We find those today.

Was Homo erectus capable of that?

Yes, they were.

Did they show the kinds of communication,

correction, cooperation, planning

that would have required human language?

Yes, they did.

All animals communicate -

there's not a single animal
in the animal species

that doesn't communicate -

but it still seems that only humans
communicate by means of language.

Only humans have elaborate,
symbolic, grammatical systems

that allow us to communicate.

But is there anything
about what we've said

that requires that grammars be a mutation?

Or that grammars be innate?

Or that grammars be an instinct?

Does it seem any more than
that there is an instinct for chemistry,

or an instinct for building cars,

or an instinct for making burritos.

I can find making burritos
in my brain somewhere,

if you get into anatomy,

you could identify where
burritos are made in my brain,

where that knowledge is,

but that doesn't mean it's innate.

It just means that's where
it goes when I learn it,

for a variety of reasons.

So language, by all that we see,

has been invented,
it has been developed over time.

So as soon as a culture gets hold
of language, it starts to change it.

Languages are always changing.

Sometimes they become more elaborate,
sometimes they become simpler.

Homo erectus started
the process of language

through the accomplishments that they had,

through what we know about
their reasoning abilities,

and through the artifacts and villages

and evidence of voyages that they left
in the archaeological record.

Language started, if this is all correct -

I urge upon you the view that it is -

if this is all correct, language started
then 60,000 generations ago.

It's one of the greatest breakthroughs,

the beginning of the information
age for humanity,

it enabled every other
accomplishment of our species.

And if we go back to this guy,
we'll call him Johnny Erectus,

in the sense of upright
as opposed to other senses.

And he is

(Laughter)

the person who first spoke.

The first person perhaps
who said to someone else,

"I love you."

Or who said, "Let's go."

Or, "I want that."

Imagine the possibilities
and the elaborations -

60,000 generations of language.

TED talks are an example

of an attempt to harnass
the power of human language.

There is nothing more powerful
on Earth than human language.

We still don't understand
everything about it,

but we know that it makes us who we are -

the ability to speak
and communicate with one another.

So, as you leave TED this evening,

as you leave these talks and this day
that we've spent together,

use language, talk, and listen,

and appreciate the value
of this marvelous invention

that these talking gorillas,
Homo erectus, our ancestors,

the first humans to walk the Earth,

gave us.

Thank you.

(Applause)