The Evolution Of Language And Human Cooperation

How language has been helping us work together since prehistoric times

4 min readJun 29, 2020

Aerial photo of hikers in a mountain. Photo by Kristóf Vizy on Unsplash. — Photo by Kristóf Vizy on Unsplash

The notion of using a shared code –a language– to exchange ideas with others is nothing short of fascinating.

In this article, I will explore how, since prehistoric times, language has helped us work together towards our common goals, becoming a vital part of our societies.

We are going to look at the evolution of language from these perspectives:

1. Language as a defining trait of civilization

2. Language as a system

3. Language and structured thinking

Language as a defining trait of civilization

Language is essential for human organizations.

According to National Geographic, the existence of shared communication strategies is one of the six factors that determine whether an ancient group of people is considered a civilization.

Shared communication allows the infrastructure necessary for technology, trade, cultural exchange, and government to be developed and shared throughout the civilization. –National Geographic

Even though humans are not the only animals that employ language, human languages are orders of magnitude more complex than the singing patterns of humpback whales and hummingbirds. Most modern languages comprise tens of thousands of words.

Typically native speakers know 15,000 to 20,000 word families — or lemmas — in their first language. — BBC News

Humans can combine those words to communicate highly complex ideas amongst each other.

It’s essential to notice that most words usually only make sense within the language they are part of, which illustrates t work like systems.

Language as a system

In 2013 I took a course on linguistics and semiotics applied to design and visual communication as part of my master’s program. The course exposed me to the concept of language as a network of ideas or systems of signs.

Languages are systems of interrelated nodes –words– and each of them can be defined by its relationship to the others in the system.

Let’s explain this through an example.

If you pick up a dictionary, you’ll notice others define every single word you can look up. And those other words are, in turn, described by some other words from the same system or language.

Consider the following chart:

A conceptual map showing examples of semantic relationships with the word dog — Figure 1 — Examples of words related to “dog.”

In Figure 1, we can see how specific nodes are closer to the word “dog” than others. That is, they share more semantic links. In theory, we could connect any two words in a language by following an uninterrupted semantic path.

E.g. To semantically connect dog and table: dog > domestic > home > furniture > table

You can play around with this concept by using an app like Dictionary. If you click on any word in a definition, you can see that word’s meaning.

A screenshot of the Dictionary App — All words in Dictionary are clickable. — Figure 2 — All words in Dictionary are clickable.

A word that’s not connected to any other in the network does not exist in the system. That is, it is in a different language. There may be a close equivalent for it, but the pronunciation and writing will probably be different.

E.g. the word elephant [English] ~ éléphant [French] — The writing and pronunciations are similar, but not exactly the same.

Because of the infinite number of meanings permutations a language provides, we can use them to construct and communicate highly elaborate ideas with other people, enabling us to develop structured thinking.

Language and structured thinking

I would argue the main reason language sprouted independently in all civilizations across the world is that we needed it to cooperate and survive.

Taking down a mammoth would have been considerably more manageable with a good strategy in place. The opening scene in the 2018 film “Alpha” offers a beautiful interpretation of what a cooperative approach must have looked like in prehistoric times.

Opening Scene of the movie Alpha (2018) — Movieclips

To survive, our brains needed to generate solutions quickly, so they evolved a heuristic approach to thinking that’s fast but not very precise. But as food and resources became more abundant through agriculture and specialization of labor, societies grew in complexity.

Without language, thought is a vague, uncharted nebula.
― Ferdinand de Saussure, Cours de linguistique générale

Communicating increasingly complex concepts through spoken language became essential to society. And due to our cognitive limitations, we reached a point where we also needed to develop writing as a form of expanding our memory and preserving it.

Societies demanded more structures to avoid descending into anarchy and chaos. This was when we started to develop structural thinking, which allowed us to transfer insight.

This is why exercising your oral and written expression is so powerful. It forces you to connect ideas in a logical, structured manner so that other people can clearly understand what’s inside your head.

If you can think, and speak, and write, you are absolutely deadly. Nothing can get in your way — Jordan Peterson

Every time you explain something through the written or spoken word, you are teaching your brain to use language to think logically. It’s a workout for your mind.

Final thoughts

Humans developed language as a way to cooperate and increase our chance of survival. As our societies grew in complexity, so did our ideas.

Being able to exchange insight clearly and concisely allows us to work together more effectively.