The Chemistry of Protolanguage

Hammond, Robert Rosen, axiom of closure. Protolanguage (Derek Bickerton) in linguistics corresponds to an evolutionary stage preceding the grammaticalized language as we know it. It could be possible to reconstruct the principles of protolanguage by turning to most general principles of evolution in a larger picture, of which chemistry is a relevant part. Both linguistics and chemistry are discrete combinatorial systems. Considering the chemical origin of life, chemical analogies might offer some insight into the origin of mind, language, and society, all of which developed on the platform of life. The conceptual basis for discrete combinatorial systems, including chemistry and language, can be found in Pattern Theory (Ulf Grenander) where ideas, utterances, and molecules are configurations. To draw the parallel further, chemistry uses its own language of chemical nomenclature to represent non-linear molecular structures as linear strings of symbols. Chemistr