Abstract

Comrie (2000) asks if there are any cases of documented ontogenetic processes that could throw light on the creation of human language — are there cases now where humans endowed with linguistic capacity “create language anew”, and is it possible if there are such cases to characterize the circumstances necessary for language creation? This article first pays tribute to the potentially fertile idea of Comrie's, and then sets out why, in the opinion of its author, Comrie does not take his idea far enough. Comrie has a traditional view of what characterizes “the complexity of normal human languages”, namely, “complex syntax”, and thus falls into the black hole of a discontinuity between protolanguage and fully fledged language. This article advocates that very simple manifestations of the human linguistic capacity should be taken very seriously indeed as the seedbed for the development of complex syntax (in Comrie's sense): Comrie's quest for the origins of language does not go back far enough.