How Did Language Evolve? Some Reflections on the Language Parasite Debate

Biological Theory 14 (4):214-223 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The language parasite approach refers to the view that language, like a parasite, is an adaptive system that evolves to fit its human hosts. Supported by recent computer simulations, LPA proponents claim that the reason that humans can use languages with ease is not because we have evolved with genetically specified linguistic instincts but because languages have adapted to the preexisting brain structures of humans. This article examines the LPA. It argues that, while the LPA has advantages over its rival, Chomskyan nativism, there are additional factors that may limit linguistic variety that have yet to be identified by its insightful proponents. This article suggests abandoning the search for a decisive cause of language capacity and argues that language evolution is more likely to arise from balancing multiple engineering constraints.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

What We Know When We Know a Language.Barry C. Smith - 2006 - In Ernest Lepore & Barry C. Smith (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language. Oxford University Press. pp. 941.
Transition to Language.Alison Wray (ed.) - 2002 - Oxford University Press UK.
Language as shaped by the brain.Morten H. Christiansen & Nick Chater - 2008 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31 (5):489-509.
The politics of language in a deeply divided society.Neil Southern - 2013 - Pragmatics and Society 4 (2):158-176.
The language bioprogram hypothesis.Derek Bickerton - 1984 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7 (2):173.
The emergence of language.Mark Steedman - 2017 - Mind and Language 32 (5):579-590.
Social Constructivism of Language and Meaning.Chen Bo - 2015 - Croatian Journal of Philosophy 15 (1):87-113.
Real Language.Jesús Gerardo Martínez del Castillo - 2016 - Education and Linguistics Research 2 (1):40-53.
Race and language in the Darwinian tradition (and what Darwin's language–species parallels have to do with it).Gregory Radick - 2008 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 39 (3):359-370.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-04-11

Downloads
39 (#356,630)

6 months
7 (#175,814)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Tzu-wei Hung
Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Aspects of the Theory of Syntax.Noam Chomsky - 1965 - Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press.
Ontological relativity and other essays.Willard Van Orman Quine (ed.) - 1969 - New York: Columbia University Press.
Rules and representations.Noam A. Chomsky - 1980 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3 (127):1-61.

View all 35 references / Add more references