Projektnummer

0069631

Zusammenfassung

Arguably the most powerful social tool in the animal kingdom, language may have evolved as an adaptation to a new demand: the coordination of joint action. Coordinated and cooperative joint action is only possible with effective communication, which in turn requires highly flexible adjustments to social context, interaction partner and ecological settings. Are the evolutionary roots of this plasticity to be found in our closest living relatives, the great apes? Despite evidence for signal innovation and flexible signal use in the hominid family, this hypothesis remains to be tested, be...