Derek Bickerton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1926-03-25)March 25, 1926 Cheshire, England |
| Died | March 5, 2018(2018-03-05) (aged 91) |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge (PhD 1976) |
| Known for | work increole languages |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Linguistics |
| Institutions | University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa University of Leeds University of Guyana University of Cape Coast, Ghana |
Derek Bickerton (March 25, 1926 – March 5, 2018) was an English-born linguist and professor at theUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Based on his work increole languages in Guyana and Hawaii, he has proposed that the features of creole languages provide powerful insights into thedevelopment oflanguage both by individuals and as a feature of the human species. He is the originator and main proponent of thelanguage bioprogram hypothesis according to which the similarity of creoles is due to their being formed from a priorpidgin by children who all share a universal human innate grammar capacity.[1]
Bickerton also wrote several novels. His novels have been featured in the works of the Sun Ra Revival Post Krautrock Archestra, through spoken word and musical themes.
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Bickerton was born in Cheshire in 1926.[2] A graduate of theUniversity of Cambridge, England in 1949, Derek Bickerton entered academic life in the 1960s, first as a lecturer in English Literature at theUniversity of Cape Coast, Ghana, and then, after a year's postgraduate work in linguistics at theUniversity of Leeds, as senior lecturer in linguistics at theUniversity of Guyana (1967–71). For twenty-four years he was Associate Professor and Professor ofLinguistics at theUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (1972–96), having meanwhile received aPhD in linguistics in 1976 from theUniversity of Cambridge. He is the father ofcontemporary artistAshley Bickerton. His other children are Julie Bickerton Bravata and Jim Bickerton.
To answer questions about creole formation, in the late 1970s Bickerton proposed an experiment that involves marooning on an island six couples speaking six different languages, along with children too young to have acquired their parents’ languages. TheNational Science Foundation deemed the proposed experiment unethical and refused to fund it.[1]
In his bookRoots of Language (1981), Bickerton poses three questions:1) How didcreole languages originate?2) How do childrenacquire language?3) How did the language faculty originate as a feature of the human species?
InLanguage and Species (1990), he suggests that all three questions might be answered by postulating that theorigin of language can be traced to the evolution of representation systems and symbolic thinking, together with a later development of formalsyntax. Using primitive communication faculties, which then evolved in parallel, mental models became shared representations subject tocultural evolution. InLingua ex Machina (2000), he and William Calvin revise this speculative theory by considering the biological foundations of symbolic representation and their influence on the evolution of the brain.
In his memoirBastard Tongues (2008), he describes himself as a "street linguist" who emphasizes field work, with a "total lack of respect for the respectable",[1] and he outlines his theories for a general audience.
InAdam’s Tongue (2009), he makes an argument about theorigin of language which relies onniche construction to supply the required evolutionary catalyst. He claims that human language is not on a continuum with animal communication systems (ACSs) but is a qualitatively different communicative system. Animal communication systems are onlyindexical, restricted to conveying information about immediate circumstances insofar as these impinge upon individual survival, reproduction, and social relations. Human language, on the other hand, is capable of spatial and temporaldisplacement.
Bickerton argues that peculiar features characterizing the ecological niche of early man allowed for this breakthrough from an ACS into language. He cites the fact that around two million years ago our ancestors were finding their way to the top of a scavenging pyramid, accessing the carcasses of megafauna before other predators and holding them off by working in coordinated groups. By imitating an animal, like a mammoth, one member could attempt to communicate information about such food sources. Although such imitative signaling retained an iconic character rather than fully symbolic, they involved an act of displacement in communication since the body could be miles away and discovered hours earlier. Over time, the sounds signifying something like a mammoth would be decontextualized and come to resemble something much more closely resembling a word. Displacement, Bickerton claims, is the hallmark feature of language.
In Bickerton's view, these words allowed the formation of concepts rather than mere categories that animals are also capable of. Words began as the anchors for sensory information and memories about a specific animal or object. Once the brain had words it could create concepts which came together as a 'protolanguage'. The protolanguage remained much like apidgin for a million years or more, eventually it went from the "beads-on-a-string" model of speech to a hierarchical structure throughMerge. Bickerton died in March 2018 at the age of 91.[3]
