Language is an essential part of what makes us human. Where did it come from? How did it
develop into the complex system we know today? And what can an evolutionary perspective …

Human speech has combinatorial structure, but it is still unclear how this type of organization
emerged in the course of language evolution. There are two positions in the debate about …

Languages combine arbitrary and iconic signals. How do iconic signals emerge and when
do they persist? We present an experimental study of the role of iconicity in the emergence …

Recent studies have taken advantage of newly available, large-scale, cross-linguistic data
and new statistical techniques to look at the relationship between language structure and …

Humans spatialize time. This occurs within individual mindsand also in larger, shared
cultural systems like language. Understanding the origins of space-time map**s …

Abstract Models of cognitive processes often include simplifications, idealisations, and
fictionalisations, so how should we learn about cognitive processes from such models …

This study investigates whether there is a universal tendency for content interrogative words
(wh-words) within a language to sound similar in order to facilitate pragmatic inference in …

In this experiment, an alien from a distant planet is going to ask you for help. The alien has
crashed with his space ship on our planet and he needs your help to repair his space ship …

The languages of the world vary in the extent to which they utilise iconic signals, in which
there is a perceived resemblance between form and meaning. Sign languages make …

Models are a flourishing and indispensable area of research in language evolution. Here we
highlight critical issues in using and interpreting models, and suggest viable approaches …