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Language evolution as cultural evolution: how language is shaped by the brain
Author(s) -
Chater Nick,
Christiansen Morten H.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
wiley interdisciplinary reviews: cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.526
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1939-5086
pISSN - 1939-5078
DOI - 10.1002/wcs.85
Subject(s) - universal grammar , grammar , natural selection , cognitive science , selection (genetic algorithm) , language evolution , linguistics , cognition , sociocultural evolution , evolutionary psychology , human language , language acquisition , computer science , adaptation (eye) , natural language , process (computing) , psychology , artificial intelligence , sociology , philosophy , anthropology , neuroscience , operating system , social psychology
Abstract This paper reviews arguments against the evolutionary plausibility of a traditional genetically specified universal grammar. We argue that no such universal grammar could have evolved, either by a process of natural selection or by other evolutionary mechanisms. Instead, we propose that the close fit between languages and language learners, which make language acquisition possible, arises not because humans possess a specialized biological adaptation for language, but because language has been shaped to fit the brain, a process of cultural evolution. On this account, many aspects of the structure of human languages may be explained as cultural adaptations to the human brain. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This article is categorized under: Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition Linguistics > Evolution of Language Psychology > Language