Short Courses & Events / Archive

Why Only Humans Have Language

Thursday 12th January 2023, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM (London Time)

Language and speech, in the forms we have them, are unique to humans.

Why should that be?

I will suggest that they evolved in our lineage to bond the very large groups that we evolved, and probably only dates back around 200,000 years or so.

Although we do use it to say things about ourselves (a kind of advertising function), in fact we gain most of our information on this aspect of who we are from non-verbal cues.

Rather, the main function of speech seems to be to allow us to tell stories – everything from jokes to history to fiction.

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Professor Robin Dunbar

Robin Dunbar MA PhD DSc(Hon) FRAI FBA is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford, an Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, and an elected...

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We have plenty of upcoming short courses coming soon. See details of some of them below or look at the full list of short courses.

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