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Origin of language
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==== ''Homo erectus'' ==== Evidence for ''[[Homo erectus]]'' potentially using language comes in the form of [[Acheulean]] tool usage. The use of abstract thought in the formation of Acheulean hand axes coincides with the symbol creation necessary for simple language.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Barham |first1=Lawrence |last2=Everett |first2=Daniel |date=1 June 2021 |title=Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic |journal=Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=535–579 |doi=10.1007/s10816-020-09480-9 |issn=1573-7764 |s2cid=225509049 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Recent language theories present [[recursion]] as the unique facet of human language and theory of mind.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vicari |first1=Giuseppe |last2=Adenzato |first2=Mauro |date=May 2014 |title=Is recursion language-specific? Evidence of recursive mechanisms in the structure of intentional action |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1053810014000555 |journal=Consciousness and Cognition |volume=26 |pages=169–188 |doi=10.1016/j.concog.2014.03.010 |pmid=24762973 |s2cid=206955548 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2318/154505}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Corballis |first=Michael |date=2007 |title=The Uniqueness of Human Recursive Thinking |url=https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-uniqueness-of-human-recursive-thinking |journal=American Scientist |volume=95 |issue=3 |page=240 |doi=10.1511/2007.65.240 |issn=0003-0996}}</ref> However, breaking down language into its symbolic parts: separating meaning from the requirements of grammar, it becomes possible to see that language does not depend on either recursion or grammar. This can be evidenced by the [[Pirahã language|Pirahã]] language users in Brazil that have no myth or creation stories, no numbers and no colors within their language.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Everett |first=Daniel L. |date=August 2005 |title=Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã: Another Look at the Design Features of Human Language |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=621–646 |doi=10.1086/431525 |issn=0011-3204 |s2cid=2223235 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2066/41103}}</ref> This is to highlight that even though grammar may have been unavailable, use of foresight, planning and symbolic thought can be evidence of language as early as one million years ago with Homo ''erectus''.
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