Keynote address by Balthasar Bickel @CogSci: Linguistic diversity in the light of human evolution
On 23 July 2026 at 9:00 a.m. local time, Balthasar Bickel is scheduled to give a keynote lecture on "Linguistic diversity in the light of human evolution" at the 2026 conference of the Cognitive Science Society, July 22- 25, 2026, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Abstract:
One of the most specific properties of language is its diversity. In my talk, I will present our recent work on this property and discuss its implications for cognitive science. Linguistic diversity results from an ergodic process of change, i.e. a process where every state remains accessible in finite but variable time. This property makes it possible for languages to endlessly index new group differences while maintaining global adaptiveness. The property has likely emerged during Pleistocene changes in population dynamics, establishing a link between population history and linguistic diversification that is still visible today. These findings have two major implications. First, its ergodic dynamic entails that language resists fixation at a species-wide optimum, e.g. maximal efficiency in communication or verbal thinking. In other words, ergodicity entails that languages necessarily include non-optimal, inefficient choices. Second, its population-dynamic drivers make it hard to identify preferential choices (e.g. in word order) that are true human universals rather than the outcome of historical events such as the massive population turnovers after the invention of agriculture. I will show that the problem can be resolved to some extent by convergent evidence showing that a cognitive mechanism driving a universal preference is detectable also in speakers of languages in a dispreferred state and (in some cases) even in primate cognition beyond humans. I will review some recent findings along these lines, focusing chiefly on event representation and hierarchy in syntax. In summary, these studies suggest that the study of human cognition stands to profit not only from embracing current diversity but by taking an evolutionary perspective on this diversity.
Link to conference website