Displays Of Verbal And Vocal Complexities: A Fitness Account Of Language.

Every hearing person in the world knows at least one spoken language, none of them only know a signed language, that puts relevance on the reason why it needs to be vocal. Today people speak often and easily, even if there is no need or topic, we love speaking even if to ourselves or to things we know won't or simply can't understand us. People are constantly are saying words and utterances, in the forms or speech or song they even create new words and modify existing ones for whatever purpose quite easily, as evident in children starting from even before they can walk. Apes on the other hand vocalize only in certain circumstances, rather than often as humans do. Apes use gestures a lot more, usually indexical gestures. Within the call and vocalizations of apes, there is little that cross the whole species as if a language would do. Nor can the apes improvise or edit the calls in the same manner than humans do. This means that unlike with many other fields within anthropology, apes do not provide a good starting point on the ability and evolution of the manipulation of language.

Locke then goes on to try and discuss the factors related to the evolution of these vocal behaviors and he states his claims. His first claim, is that the ability to freely control how we used and altered our vocalizations and thus language, became a fitness cue, those who could do this best had a better ability to survive due to the controlling, ordering and recollection of important information and data. The second claim is that the complexity of language once learnt helped order the brain, almost like an operating system that allowed the mental brain to have an form of representation that could be freely edited to allow greater mental processes, it was from this along with increasingly longer and more complex strings of vocalization that the evolving human mind started to grasp and build the concept of syntax.

Locke then goes on the explain that certain changes to vocal, phonetic and cognitive within an individuals life happen at certain points throughout their life. And then continuing on from that the formation of environmental tiers that also effect the way these changes happen. And to finish how these different stages and changes, being changed and changed back throughout early humans eventually led to the formation of a full-fledged language.

Firstly the evolution of language must follow the same rules as the evolution of any trait, physical or otherwise. An evolutionary theory for these changes must thus follow the rules of any evolutionary theory that environmental changes must help select which traits are carried forward and help with fitness. A look on the precursors and the benefits they provided their users when looking at primates or early modern humans must be observed. Many traits selected for fitness during this stage would be physical ones, and louder vocalizations such as grunts and shouts are indexical to ones physical bearing, whether it be size, health, vitality and or aggressiveness, the need to see how this evolved is important.

Locke continues on to explain that evolutionary we were developed with mechanical processes for speech (voice box) and cognitive mechanism to use them. He then laters goes on to say this connection is continued through a variety of different parts throughout ones life. The thought that any adaptive form of vocalization would have been reinforced down the evolutionary line its what Locke uses to tie development with evolution. Traits like the jaw, voice box and tongue's ability to form words would have been reinforced.

Humans in particular have four stages to look at throughout their life and the development connected to each.

Infancy, Locke describes as the period from birth to around the time the child is weened, it is as this time that the child first enters its chance to grasp the vocal patterns of its parents and later peers and other family members. The change in brain size, coupled with the change in pelvic size, leaves the large headed modern human a lot less able to fend for it self due to us being born while our heads are still small enough to get through the pelvis. So human infants have a lot more one on one care with their carers, be they the parents or otherwise. This increase in care along with the 'Put the baby down' concept tied with Motherese allows the child a saturation of social behaviors and in this case, language from the carer. Infants would have to learn more and more vocalizations in order to try and portray what they want or need, due to being further proximity from the mother at this time than other species. Skills such as reading the mothers responses and feedback on whatever sounds they make, lead up to understanding language.

Childhood, Locke quotes Bogin on that the early weening created an early and short childhood of 2 years, which later due to the success of language with social complexities was extended to 4 years. Locke makes a point that childhood is uniquely human. during this stage finer motor control of the jaw and mouth are observed, showed in the better presence of eating and learning to control the newly growth teeth. In this stage, a throwback to the fact that children were weened early meant that humans could have more children within a woman`s fertile lifespan, meaning that compared to non-human primates, humans had more siblings aka more competition for care and resources and as such had to think of newer ways to vocalise to stand out, those that do this succeeded more than those who did not, fitness manifested through simple childish gestures and vocalisations, including the use of formed syllables rather than crying. The use of these syllables such as Mama 'ma' and Dada 'da' is interpreted by the parent in a positive way and may lead to an assumed profound connection and in response the child gets more attention and care.

During childhood the child is given more freedom, and as such need to be warned more of the dangers of he world. Children who have been able to understand vocalizations that indicate danger, safety or a variety of other things compared to those who need to shown visual or work through it are more likely to survive, showing that in early humans these traits were reinforced through natural selection. Their offspring gain these talents and over time it helps build a foundation of language, a vocal language.

Juvenility. The age period of between 7year to adolescence after between 3 to 5 years. In this time along with the following adolescence period humans tend to branch out and enter a pre-sexual stage, the skills learnt here transfer over to when they reach a sexually mature stage. These skills include social and linguistic skills, as as the human advances through his or her life, so does the vocal and linguistic skills they develop, helping them navigate whatever they come across during these periods, such as fluently flowing out utterances with social importance or relevance.

During this period the juvenile would have to start to prepare themselves for the more intense social interactions that would follow in adolescence such as sex and competition with others. It is why now, the juvenile will practice their vocal and social strengths, in forms such as story-telling, gossiping and telling jokes. For when the juvenile reaches the high stages, they will have to be best prepared to compete against others, and for that social traits and vocalization would help them better get across anything they wished to share. More traits that would have been reinforced during early human evolution, as the ones more successful due to their utterances would reproduce more.

Adolescence Another like childhood unique to humans, a form of not quite a juvenile but still not an adult, in contrast to most animals who transfer straight between the two stages. Starting at the end of Juvenility and ending when one reaches 19 as enters adulthood. This stage in humans gave them more reproductive success, as it was an extended period for them to gain and improve on skills needed for adulthood and reproduction.

Speaking during the adolescence phase is like a show book of ones genetic makeup, if that is good tied with the correct levels of social vocalizations practised during juvenility can lead to greater success with mating and reproducing. In humans the lower a males voice is gives an indexical insight to the levels of testosterone which could be a sexual marker, as apparently women prefer deeper voices on men. The better you are at speaking gives more chances for you to show off your voice, and the content your suitability as a mate. Studies had shown that men with deeper voices often had more children than those with higher voices, this could have originally been a trait that was passed down the evolutionary ladder or if not one if the studies are to be taken at face value to be one that will be.

Locke continues to explain they complexity of language. Lexicons and even dictionaries consist of far too many words that people need to use in everyday language to get their points and messages across, just as grammar becomes highly complex than they need to, to allow basic communication. Locke then continues to say that the way one would string together these words gave an insight more often than not indexical about that person. Whether it showed how quick their wit was in order to retort cleverly or rather the way they said words or choice showing their background, ones voice and choice of words reveals more than one would hope and or think. Those with the ability to make better, more complex sentences would be viewed as more desirable, more intelligent perhaps than those who cannot. Perhaps this is why we find certain accents more attractive than others.

The outcome therefore of following this could be said the voice and what we say works as a window into that persons soul. The sound, the pitch and frequency of the voice indicated the genetic level of the subject, while the content not only showed intelligence but also a more profound way of understanding ones thought patterns and eventually their compatibility as a mate. This goes on to show that those who learn more and more clever ways to vocalize and get across their meanings gained more mates, and by speaking or vocalizing more allowed others to pick up on their genetic traits via the layers of their voice itself, these traits were reinforced eventually overtime forming the foundation of modern languages. Could this be why so many women find musicians attractive, the combination of smart lyrical strings and a pleasant sounding voice?

And if while competing against others in this vocal competition, we had to change words and add different aspects, could that have been the pre-cursor to the variety of different languages in the world today?