Creatività e origini del linguaggio

The topic of the origins of language is closely connected to the one of human nature: the way human beings know and operate in the world depends on languages and other semiotic systems. Studying the origins of language means investigating the origins of the human species. Reality is complex and can be categorised in many ways. Creativity, or the ability to build multiple descriptions of the world, allows to cope with this complexity. De Mauro and Garroni considered creativity to be the basis of human cognition and semiosis. Creativity originates during the ontogenesis of cognition and communication through the combination of patterns and active experimentation (Piaget). It transforms knowledge bound to event patterns into laws and experiential concepts. In the social cognition field, creativity allows the development of the Theory of Mind. Knowledge concerning the social domain and the physical domain are combined in the making of verbal meanings, giving rise to Saussurian sign systems in which reference to the world is mediated by a network of relations between signs. Afterward, the linguisticisation of thought (dialogue, spontaneous definitions) allows reflection on the experiential knowledge and brings out the relationships of similarity and opposition that organise the semantic system. Creativity is the ability to reflect on semiotic systems and to distance oneself from them (Garroni). Such developments are based on the existence of languages. Creative capacities manifesting in ontogeny will be investigated in order to compare them with research on chimpanzees and Bonobos, assuming that the common ancestor of humans and these species had the same cognitive capacities as the Great Apes. The role of experimentation, its presence in anthropoids and possible differences with human developments will be examined. A crucial change in prospective abilities in the field of communication is conjectured, with general effects on human cognition.