PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Andrey Vyshedskiy
TI  - Language evolution to revolution: from a slowly developing finite communication system with many words to infinite modern language
AID  - 10.1101/166520
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 166520
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/20/166520.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/20/166520.full
AB  - There is overwhelming archeological and genetic evidence that modern speech apparatus was acquired by hominins by 600,000 years ago. There is also widespread agreement that modern syntactic language arose with behavioral modernity around 100,000 years ago. We attempted to answer two crucial questions: (1) how different was the communication system of hominins before acquisition of modern language and (2) what triggered the acquisition of modern language 100,000 years ago. We conclude that the communication system of hominins prior to 100,000 years ago was finite and not-recursive. It may have had thousands of words but was lacking flexible syntax, spatial prepositions, verb tenses, and other features that enable modern human language to communicate an infinite number of ideas. We argue that a synergistic confluence of a genetic mutation that dramatically slowed down the prefrontal cortex (PFC) development in monozygotic twins and their spontaneous invention of spatial prepositions 100,000 years ago resulted in acquisition of PFC-driven constructive imagination (mental synthesis) and converted the finite communication system of their ancestors into infinite modern language.