Co-Evolution of Language Size and the Critical Period

James R. Hurford · Simon Kirby

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Language and cultural evolution Language Development and Disorders Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior

Abstract

Species evolve, very slowly, through selection of genes that give rise to phenotypes well adapted1 to their environments. The cultures, including the languages, of human communities evolve much faster, maintaining at least a minimum level of adaptedness to the external, noncultural environment. In the phylogenetic evolution of species, the transmission of information across generations is via copying of molecules, and innovation is by mutation and sexual recombination. In cultural evolution, the transmission of information across generations is by learning, and innovation is by sporadic invention or borrowing from other cultures. This much is the foundational bedrock of evolutionary theory.

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