Chater, Nick, Reali, Florencia and Christiansen, Morten H. (2009) Restrictions on biological adaptation in language evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol.106 (No.4). pp. 1015-1020. doi:10.1073/pnas.0807191106 ISSN 1091-6490.

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Abstract

Language acquisition and processing are governed by genetic constraints. A crucial unresolved question is how far these genetic constraints have coevolved with language, perhaps resulting in a highly specialized and species-specific language "module," and how much language acquisition and processing redeploy preexisting cognitive machinery. In the present work, we explored the circumstances under which genes encoding language-specific properties could have coevolved with language itself. We present a theoretical model, implemented in computer simulations, of key aspects of the interaction of genes and language. Our results show that genes for language could have coevolved only with highly stable aspects of the linguistic environment; a rapidly changing linguistic environment does not provide a stable target for natural selection. Thus, a biological endowment could not coevolve with properties of language that began as learned cultural conventions, because cultural conventions change much more rapidly than genes. We argue that this rules out the possibility that arbitrary properties of language, including abstract syntactic principles governing phrase structure, case marking, and agreement, have been built into a "language module" by natural selection. The genetic basis of human language acquisition and processing did not coevolve with language, but primarily predates the emergence of language. As suggested by Darwin, the fit between language and its underlying mechanisms arose because language has evolved to fit the human brain, rather than the reverse.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Behavioural Science Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Journal or Publication Title:	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publisher:	National Academy of Sciences
ISSN:	1091-6490
Official Date:	27 January 2009
Dates:	Date Event 27 January 2009 Published
Volume:	Vol.106
Number:	No.4
Number of Pages:	6
Page Range:	pp. 1015-1020
DOI:	10.1073/pnas.0807191106
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access

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