On the Evolving Biology of Language
Creators
Description
Some language scientists defend an anti-Darwin account and believe in the saltational evolution
of modern language. They emphasize that the language faculty emerged by a sudden mutation in the
last 50–100 ky (e.g., Klein, 2000; Chomsky, 2012, 2015; Berwick et al., 2013). In contrast, others
claim that modern language is the product of a gradual co-evolution of neurobiological and
cultural-linguistic conditions, which took place since genus Pan was separated for good from the
hominin lineage about 4–6 mya (e.g., Pinker and Bloom, 1990; Pinker, 1994; Deacon, 1997; Dor and
Jablonka, 2001; Falk, 2004; Enfield and Levinson, 2006; Levinson and Jaisson, 2006;
Christiansen and Chater, 2008; Atkinson, 2011; Dunn et al., 2011; Dediu and Levinson, 2014). New
genetic evidence and their interpretation in context of fossil and artifact discoveries shed
however light on this controversy. The data indicate that pre-modern language might have been
already spoken by Homo erectus. Moreover, we conclude that the sister species of modern humans,
Neanderthals and Denisovans, may have used language much like modern humans do (e.g., Dediu
and Levinson, 2013).
Files
fpsyg-06-01796.pdf
Files
(153.4 kB)
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:baf60f1b86cbabd13061051a5667b876
|
153.4 kB | Preview Download |