What good is language? What did our ancestors gain by evolving into language-apt creatures? What can we cognitively achieve because we master language, and what would be impossible if we had not evolved language?

This workshop aspires to spell out, with a certain degree of detail, the age-old idea that man is the zoon logon echon. As ‘logos’ means ‘language’ as well as ‘reason’ (or cognition), we will investigate how the two faculties relate to one another. The workshop is premised on the assumption that language makes us human because it augments and transforms our cognitive capacities in intricate ways. It aims at examining what these cognitive capacities are, how their transformation comes about, and which properties of language can be held accountable for these cognitive accomplishments.

Participating in this workshop are:

• Chris Cummins (University of Edinburgh)
• Cornelia Ebert (Goethe University Frankfurt)
• Mitchell Green (University of Connecticut)
• Thomas Hoffmann (Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt)
• Ammie Kalan (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)
• Christiane Lange-Kuettner (London Metropolitan University=
• Gary Lupyan (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• Kenny Smith (University of Edinburgh)
• Jacopo Torregrossa (Goethe University Frankfurt=
• Simon Townsend (University of Warwick/University of Zurich)
• Stuart Watson (University of Zurich)
• Gert Westermann (Lancaster University)
• Eva Wittenberg (University of California San Diego)

The workshop is part of a prospective research unit on „The Cognitive Benefits of Language“, consisting of Alexander Bergs, Michael Franke, Angela Grimm, Thomas Gruber, Nikola Kompa, Kai-Uwe Kühnberger, Jutta Mueller, and Simone Pika.

If you are interested in attending the workshop, please contact our coordinator Marie-Christine Benen (mabenen@uos.de).