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A biological infrastructure for communication underlies the cultural evolution of languages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

J. P. de Ruiter  and
Stephen C. Levinson
J. P. de Ruiter
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, NL-6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands. janpeter.deruiter@mpi.nlhttp://www.mpi.nl/Members/JanPeterdeRuiterstephen.levinson@mpi.nlhttp://www.mpi.nl/Members/StephenLevinson
Stephen C. Levinson
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, NL-6500 AH Nijmegen, The Netherlands. janpeter.deruiter@mpi.nlhttp://www.mpi.nl/Members/JanPeterdeRuiterstephen.levinson@mpi.nlhttp://www.mpi.nl/Members/StephenLevinson
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Abstract

Universal Grammar (UG) is indeed evolutionarily implausible. But if languages are just “adapted” to a large primate brain, it is hard to see why other primates do not have complex languages. The answer is that humans have evolved a specialized and uniquely human cognitive architecture, whose main function is to compute mappings between arbitrary signals and communicative intentions. This underlies the development of language in the human species.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 5 , October 2008 , pp. 518
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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