The Origin and evolution of the language: Step Theory

Abstract

This article is written for the purpose of explaining the theory of “step theory”, named by me, on the origin and evolution of the language. The theory argues that it is necessary to focus not only on the origin of language, but also on its evolution after the birth. Derek Bickerton has asked “how humans made language?” in his book named Adam’s Tongue. On the other hand, the step theory seeks an answer to the question of “how was the root language evolved after the birth?” According to the theory, the language evolved through seven steps after “direct imitation”. These steps are “overcoming time and place barriers”, “the emergence of symbolic words”, “the birth of specific meanings and functions from the types of sounds (phono semantic)”, “the reproduction of words”, “word order (syntax)”, “the emergence of inflection” and “differentiation (division into dialects and languages)” respectively. Firstly, these steps and current situation are explained in the article. Furthermore, the divergence of the languages from each other and the divergence of the words from their primary forms (the emergence of arbitrariness) are explained in eight points. Parallels between human evolution and language evolution have also been drawn attention in this study.