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In humans, vocal control is the basis for speech, achieved through coordinated interactions of larynx activity and rapid changes in vocal tract configurations. Most likely, speech evolved in response to early humans perceiving reality in increasingly complex ways, to the effect that primate\u2010like signaling became unsustainable as a sole communication device. However, in what ways did and do humans see the world in more complex ways compared to other species? Although animal signals can refer to external events, in contrast to humans, they usually refer to the agents only, sometimes in compositional ways, but never together with patients. It may be difficult for animals to comprehend events as part of larger social scripts, with antecedent causes and future consequences, which are more typically tie the patient into the event. Human brain enlargement over the last million years probably has provided the cognitive resources to represent social interactions as part of bigger social scripts, which enabled humans to go beyond an agent\u2010focus to refer to agent\u2013patient relations, the likely foundation for the evolution of grammar.<\/jats:p><jats:p>This article is categorized under:<jats:list list-type=\"simple\">\n<jats:list-item><jats:p>Cognitive Biology &gt; Evolutionary Roots of Cognition<\/jats:p><\/jats:list-item>\n<jats:list-item><jats:p>Linguistics &gt; Evolution of Language<\/jats:p><\/jats:list-item>\n<jats:list-item><jats:p>Psychology &gt; Comparative<\/jats:p><\/jats:list-item>\n<\/jats:list><\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/wcs.1594","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,31]],"date-time":"2022-05-31T16:36:54Z","timestamp":1654015014000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Transition to language: From agent perception to event representation"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8378-088X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Klaus","family":"Zuberb\u00fchler","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Biology, University of Neuchatel  Neuchatel"},{"name":"School of Psychology and Neuroscience University of St Andrews  St Andrews"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9087-0565","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Balthasar","family":"Bickel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Comparative Language Science University of Zurich  Zurich Switzerland"},{"name":"Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution University of Zurich  Zurich Switzerland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_12_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/441303a"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cub.2008.01.040"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bandl.2011.10.001"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0010-0277(85)90022-8"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1087513"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_7_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/sciadv.aav3991"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_8_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1515\/tlir.2005.22.2-4.135"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0018786"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_10_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.anbehav.2018.05.01"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_11_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1098\/rspb.2015.0265"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_12_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.anbehav.2016.03.010"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_13_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1163\/1568539054012047"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_14_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/J.Cub.2011.11.053"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_15_1","volume-title":"The descent of man and selection in relation to sex","author":"Darwin C.","year":"1871"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_16_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev.neuro.22.1.567"},{"key":"e_1_2_12_17_1","first-page":"547","volume":"67","author":"Dowty D. 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