The Nature and Origin of Language
Denis Bouchard
Abstract
The most important is that it provides a good test for linguistic theories. It considers some current scenarios of the emergence of language. Some assume that language is a culturally evolved system of symbolic communication (Washburn; Dawkins; Byrne and Whiten; Donald; Deacon; Li and Hombert; Zuberbühler and Byrne; Dessalles; Kirby, Christiansen, and Chater). Others hypothesize that language is a genetically evolved system, as an adaptation by natural selection for communication (Jackendoff and Pinker), or as an adaptation in two steps (Bickerton), or due to a saltation for syntax (Hauser, Ch ... More
The most important is that it provides a good test for linguistic theories. It considers some current scenarios of the emergence of language. Some assume that language is a culturally evolved system of symbolic communication (Washburn; Dawkins; Byrne and Whiten; Donald; Deacon; Li and Hombert; Zuberbühler and Byrne; Dessalles; Kirby, Christiansen, and Chater). Others hypothesize that language is a genetically evolved system, as an adaptation by natural selection for communication (Jackendoff and Pinker), or as an adaptation in two steps (Bickerton), or due to a saltation for syntax (Hauser, Chomsky, and Fitch), or as an adaptation for a language of thought (Chomsky), or as an adaptation via grammaticalization of constructions (Hurford). However, they all fail to explain the emergence of the basic linguistic capacities—to create signs and combine them.
Keywords:
sign theory of language,
offline brain systems,
origin,
syntactic analysis,
acquisition
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199681624 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2014 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199681624.001.0001 |
