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Authoritative: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X08005116   (Publisher's PDF... likely be available here.)

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Abstract

Meaning construction through language requires advanced mental operations also necessary for other higher-order, specifically human behaviors. Biological evolution slowly improved conceptual mapping capacities until human beings reached the level of double-scope blending, perhaps 50 to 80 thousand years ago, at which point language, along with other higher-order human behaviors, became possible. Languages are optimized to be driven by the principles and powers of double-scope blending.

@article{fauconnier08BBScomments,
  author={Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner},
  title={The origin of language as a product of the evolution of double-scope blending},
  journal={Behavioral and Brain Sciences},
  year={2008},
  volume={31},
  number={5},
  pages={520-521},
  doi={10.1017/S0140525X08005116},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/fauconnier08BBScomments.html}
}