The Role of Play in Language Structure, Acquisition and Evolution

ABSTRACT Similarly to language, play is an essential component of human behaviour and culture. However, the links between play and language have been underexamined and often neglected beyond the aesthetic uses of language as found in literature. But playing pervades language. In this paper, we provide an overview of the central role of play in shaping language structure, use, acquisition, and evolution. Accordingly, many aspects of language structure can be related to playing, in part because of the human proclivity for order, regularity and symmetry, but also because ‘playful’ structures and playing with language can be expected to facilitate language acquisition, as well as other functions of language, particularly those related to social fitness. From an evolutionary perspective, in parallel with the increase of our playing behaviour (more time devoted to play and more diversity in types) as a result of biological and cultural changes, play can be argued to have provided a scaffolding for the emergence of more complex linguistic structures, as found in modern languages, and more complex uses of language, as found in modern pragmatics. More complex language use supports the emergence of more complex playing behaviour, which in turn enables more complex playing behaviour, enabling more complex language structures, in a feedback loop. Compared to other accounts, our paper provides a more nuanced view of the nature and origins of language structure and patterns of use, as a result of broader changes in human cognition and behaviour (particularly, on our proclivity to play) as we evolved towards more prosocial behaviour.