The emergence of temporality: from restricted linguistic systems to early human language

Abstract

Temporality is a fundamental category of human cognition which, in contrast to animal communication, is encoded in elaborate ways in every modern language. Following the windows approach, this chapter investigates the development of temporal relations in simple linguistic systems of different natures – early varieties of untutored L2 learners and homesign systems of deaf subjects – and discusses the possible implications for language evolution. The comparison of linguistic systems arising in quite different circumstances allows for the identification of recurrent developmental patterns and thus provides a more robust empirical basis for projections on early language.