Restrictions on biological adaptation in language evolution

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Volumn 106, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 1015-1020

  Chater, Nick ^a   Reali, Florencia ^b   Christiansen, Morten H ^c,d  

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^c Department of Obstetrics Gynecology   (United States)

^d SANTA FE INSTITUTE   (United States)

Author keywords

Baldwin effect; Coevolution; Cultural evolution; Language acquisition

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; COEVOLUTION; COMPUTER SIMULATION; CONTROLLED STUDY; CULTURAL FACTOR; EVOLUTIONARY ADAPTATION; GENE INTERACTION; HUMAN; LANGUAGE ABILITY; LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT; NATURAL SELECTION; PRIORITY JOURNAL; THEORETICAL MODEL;

ADAPTATION, BIOLOGICAL; ANIMALS; COMPUTER SIMULATION; EVOLUTION; FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS; GENES; HOMINIDAE; LANGUAGE; LINGUISTICS;

EID: 59049105131     PISSN: 00278424     EISSN: 10916490     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0807191106     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. Maynard Smith J, Szathmáry E (1997) Major Transitions in Evolution (Oxford Univ Press, New York).
2. Bickerton D, Szathmáry E, eds (2009) Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax (MIT Press, Cambridge MA).
3. Christiansen MH, Kirby S (2003) Language evolution: Consensus and controversies. Trends Cogn Sci 7:300-307.
4. Smith ADM, Smith K, Ferrer i Cancho R, eds (2008) Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on the Evolution of Language (World Scientific Publishing, London).
5. Fodor J (1983) The Modularity of Mind (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
6. Pinker S (1994) The Language Instinct (Harper Collins, New York).
7. Chomsky N (1980) Rules and Representations (Blackwell, Oxford, UK).
8. Pinker S, Jackendoff R (2005) The faculty of language: What's special about it? Cognition 95:201-236.
9. Bickerton D (1995) Language and Human Behavior (UCL Press, London).
10. Chomsky N (1988) Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).
11. Pinker S (2003) in Language Evolution, eds Christiansen MH, Kirby S (Oxford Univ Press, New York), pp 16-37.
12. Pinker S, Bloom P (1990) Natural language and natural selection. Behav Brain Sci 13:707-784.
13. Briscoe E (2000) Grammatical acquisition: Inductive bias and coevolution of language and the language acquisition device. Language 76:245-296.
14. Corballis MC (2003) in Language Evolution, eds Christiansen MH, Kirby S (Oxford Univ Press, New York), pp 201-218.
15. Culicover PW, Jackendoff R (2005) Simpler Syntax (Oxford Univ Press, New York).
16. Dunbar RIM (2003) in Language Evolution, eds Christiansen MH, Kirby S (Oxford Univ Press, New York), pp 219-234.
17. Számadó S, Szathmáry E (2006) Competing selective scenarios for the emergence of natural language. Trends Ecol Evol 21:555-561.
18. Tooby J, Cosmides L (2005) in The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, ed Buss DM (Wiley, Hoboken NJ), pp 5-67.
19. Nowak MA, Komarova NL, Niyogi P (2001) Evolution of universal grammar. Science 291:114-118.
20. Chomsky N (2005) Three factors in language design. Ling Inq 36:1-22.
21. Baldwin JM (1896) A new factor in evolution. Am Nat 30:441-451.
22. Waddington CH (1942) Canalization of development and the inheritance of acquired characters. Nature 150:563-565.
23. Hinton GE, Nowlan SJ (1987) How learning can guide evolution. Complex Systems 1:495-502.
24. Batali J (1994) in Artificial Life 4: Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulations of Living Systems, eds Brooks R, Maes P (Addison-Wesley, Redwood City CA), pp 160-171.
25. Kirby S, Hurford J (1997) in Fourth European Conference on Artificial Life, eds Husbands P, Harvey I (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA), pp 493-502.
26. Munroe S, Cangelosi A (2002) Learning and the evolution of language: The role of cultural variation and learning cost in the Baldwin effect. Artif Life 8:311-339.
27. Reali F, Christiansen MH (2009) The relative role of biological and linguistic adaptation in language evolution: A computational approach. Interact Stud, in press.
28. Maynard Smith J (1987) When learning guides evolution. Nature 329:761-762.
29. Ancel L (1999) A quantitative model of the Simpson-Baldwin effect. J Theor Biol 196:197-209.
30. Boyd R, Richerson PJ (2005) The Origin and Evolution of Cultures (Oxford Univ Press, Oxford UK).
31. Cavalli-Sforza LL, Feldman MW (2003) The application of molecular genetic approaches to the study of human evolution. Nat Genet 33:266-275.
32. Dawkins R (1976) The Selfish Gene (Oxford Univ Press, Oxford, UK).
33. Gray RD, Atkinson QD (2003) Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin. Nature 426:435-439.
34. Evans N (2003) Context, culture, and structuration in the languages of Australia. Annu Rev Anthropol 32:13-40
35. Levins R (1967) Evolution in Changing Environments (Princeton Univ Press, Princeton, NJ).
36. Heine B, Kuteva T (2005) Language Contact and Grammatical Change (Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge, UK).
37. Odling-Smee FJ, Laland KN, Feldman MW (2003) Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution (Princeton Univ Press, Princeton, NJ).
38. Kirby S, Dowman M, Griffiths TL (2007) Innateness and culture in the evolution of language. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104:5241-5245.
39. Crain S, Pietroski P (2001) Nature, nurture and universal grammar. Ling Philos 24:139-185.
40. Christiansen MH, Chater N (2008) Language as shaped by the brain. Behav Brain Sci, 31:489-558
41. Newman SA (2002) Developmental mechanisms: Putting genes in their place. J Biosci 27:97-104.
42. Lai CSL, Fisher SE, Hurst JA, Vargha-Khadem F, Monoca AP (2001) A fork-head domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder. Nature 413:519-523.
43. Gopnik M (1990) Feature-blind grammar and dysphasia. Nature 344:715.
44. Vargha-Khadem F, Watkins K, Alcock K, Fletcher P, Passingham R (1995) Praxic and nonverbal cognitive deficits in a large family with a genetically transmitted speech and language disorder. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 92:930-933.
45. Shu W, Yang H, Zhang L, Lu MM, Morrisey EE (2001) Characterization of a new subfamily of winged-helix/forkhead (Fox) genes that are expressed in the lung and act as transcriptional repressors. J Biol Chem 276:27488-27497.
46. Fisher SE (2006) Tangled webs: Tracing the connections between genes and cognition. Cognition 101: 270-297.
47. Vernes et al. (2008) A functional genetic link between distinct developmental language disorders. N Engl J Med 359: 2337- 2345.
48. Hauser MD, Chomsky N, Fitch, WT (2002) The faculty of language: What is it, who has it and how did it evolve? Science 298: 1569-1579.
49. Fitch WT (2000) The evolution of speech: a comparative review. Trends Cogn Sci 4: 258-267.
50. Lieberman P (2007) The evolution of human speech: Its anatomical and neural bases. Curr Anthropol 48: 39-53.
51. Hockett CF (1960) The origin of speech. Sci Am 203: 88-111.
52. Pierrehumbert J (2000) What people know about the sounds of language Linguistic Sci 29: 111-120.
53. Goldberg AE (2006) Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK).
54. Everett D (2005) Cultural constraints on grammar and cognition in Pirahã: Another look at the design features of human language. Curr Anthropol 46:621-646
55. Smith K, Kirby S (2008) Cultural evolution: Implications for understanding the human language faculty and its evolution. Phil Trans R Soc B 363: 3591-3603.
56. Bybee J (1998) A functionalist approach to grammar and its evolution. Evol Comm 2: 249-278.
57. Chomsky N (2007) in Interfaces + Recursion = Language?, eds Sauerland U, Gärtner H (Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin), pp 1-29.
58. Fodor J (1998) In Critical Condition (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).
59. Gould SJ (1991) Exaptation: A crucial tool for evolutionary psychology. J Soc Issues 47: 43-65.
60. Tattersall I (2007) Commentary on Lieberman "The evolution of human speech: Its anatomical and neural bases." Curr Anthrop 48: 57-58.
61. Deacon TW (1997) The Symbolic Species: The Coevolution of Language and the Brain (Norton, New York).
62. Kirby S, Hurford JR (2002) in Simulating the Evolution of Language, eds Cangelosi A, Parisi D (Springer-Verlag, Berlin), pp 121-148.
63. Tomasello M (2003) in Language Evolution, eds Christiansen MH, Kirby S (Oxford Univ Press, New York), pp. 94-110.
64. Darwin C (1882) The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (John Murray, London), 2nd Ed.
65. Dunbar RIM, Shultz S (2007) Evolution in the social brain. Science 317:1344-1347.