How did humans start to speak? What was the language that we originally spoke sounded like? Or maybe not SOUNDED but LOOKED like? Why only people use language? These are just a few general questions that the organisers of the meeting are going to address during International Darwin Day organised at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń by members of Centre for Language Evolution Studies.
The event is going to consist of two parts. The first part is going to introduce the fundamentals: theory of evolution, language origin scenarios, the role of syntax in communication, protolanguage, non-verbal communication, sign languages, and the differences between human language and animal communication.
The second part is going to be a workshop oriented at acquainting participants of the event with methodological aspects of research in evolution of language. Here, types of experiments conducted at the Centre, and the way they were conducted, are going to be presented. Finally, attendants will have a chance to design their own experiments and find what software they can use in their pursuits.