Editing Origin of language (section)

== Speech and language for communication ==
{{See also|Animal communication|Animal language|Origin of speech}}
{{Multiple issues|Much of the language in this section is vague and does not match the encyclopedic tone.|section=y}}
A distinction can be drawn between [[speech]] and [[language]]. Language is not necessarily spoken: it might alternatively be written or signed. Speech is among a number of different methods of encoding and transmitting linguistic information, albeit arguably{{By whom|date=November 2024}} the most natural one.<ref>MacNeilage, P. 1998. Evolution of the mechanism of language output: comparative neurobiology of vocal and manual communication. In J.&nbsp;R. Hurford, M. Studdert Kennedy and C. Knight (eds), Approaches to the Evolution of Language. Cambridge University Press, pp.&nbsp;{{clarify span|222 41|date=August 2022}}.</ref>

Some scholars, such as Noam Chomsky, view language as an initially cognitive development, its "externalisation" to serve communicative purposes occurring later in human evolution. According to one such school of thought, the key feature distinguishing human language is [[recursion]],<ref name="Hauser2002">{{Cite journal |last1=Hauser |first1=M. D. |last2=Chomsky |first2=N. |last3=Fitch |first3=W. T. |date=November 2002 |title=The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? |url=http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20021122.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Science |volume=298 |issue=5598 |pages=1569–1579 |doi=10.1126/science.298.5598.1569 |pmid=12446899 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228122250/http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20021122.pdf |archive-date=28 December 2013}}</ref> (in this context, the iterative embedding of phrases within phrases). Other scholars—notably [[Daniel Everett]]—deny that recursion is universal, citing certain languages (e.g. [[Pirahã language|Pirahã]]) which allegedly{{By whom|date=November 2024}} lack this feature.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Everett |first=Daniel L. |year=2005 |title=Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Piraha Another Look at the Design Features of Human Language |url=http://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/~kay/Everett.CA.Piraha.pdf |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=621–646 |doi=10.1086/431525 |s2cid=2223235 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2066/41103}}</ref>

The ability to ask questions is considered by some{{Like whom?|date=May 2021}} to distinguish language from non-human systems of communication.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zhordania |first=I. M. |title=Who asked the first question : the origins of human choral singing, intelligence, language and speech |publisher=Logos Tbilisi Ivane Javakhishvili State University |year=2006 |isbn=9789994031818 |location=Tbilisi, Georgia}}</ref> Some captive primates (notably bonobos and chimpanzees), having learned to use rudimentary signing to communicate with their human trainers, proved able to respond correctly to complex questions and requests. Yet they failed to ask even the simplest questions themselves.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Savage-Rumbaugh |first1=E. Sue |last2=Murphy |first2=Jeannine |last3=Sevcik |first3=Rose A. |last4=Brakke |first4=Karen E. |last5=Williams |first5=Shelly L. |last6=Rumbaugh |first6=Duane M. |last7=Bates |first7=Elizabeth |year=1993 |title=Language Comprehension in Ape and Child |journal=Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development |volume=58 |issue=3/4 |pages=i–252 |doi=10.2307/1166068 |jstor=1166068 |pmid=8366872}}</ref> Conversely, human children are able to ask their first questions (using only question [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]]) at the babbling period of their development, long before they start using syntactic structures. Although babies from different cultures acquire native languages from their social environment, all languages of the world without exception—tonal, non-tonal, intonational and accented—use similar rising "question intonation" for [[yes–no question]]s.<ref>Bolinger, Dwight L. (Editor) 1972. ''Intonation''. Selected Readings. Harmondsworth: Penguin, p.&nbsp;314.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cruttenden |first=Alan |title=Intonation |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-521-26028-2 |pages=169–174}}</ref> Except, of course, the ones that don't.<ref>Lee, Hye-Sook 2008. ''[https://www.isca-archive.org/speechprosody_2008/lee08_speechprosody.pdf Non-rising questions in North Keyonsang Korean.]'' in ''Proc. Speech Prosody 2008''. p. 241. Retrieved 26.
 August 2024.</ref> {{Clarify|reason=Questionable intent of this sentence makes the sentence read more like a comment made in spite rather than a part of the paragraph. One statement should not be made for it to immediately be rebutted in the next sentence.|date=November 2024}} This fact is a strong evidence of the universality of [[question intonation]]. In general, according to some authors{{Like whom?|date=November 2024}}, sentence intonation/pitch is pivotal in spoken grammar and is the basic information used by children to learn the grammar of whatever language.<ref name="Vaneechoutte2014" />