From Cultural Selection to Genetic Selection: A Framework for the Evolution of Language

Daniel Dor · Eva Jablonka

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Language and cultural evolution Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation Evolution and Genetic Dynamics

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to construct a programmatic framework for the evolution of human language. First, we pres- ent a novel characterization of language, which is based on some of the most recent research results in linguistics. As these results suggest, language is best characterized as a specialized communication system, dedicated to the expres- sion of a surprisingly constrained set of meanings. This characterization calls for an account of the evolution of lan- guage in terms of the interaction between cultural and genetic evolution. We develop such an evolutionary model on the basis of the mechanism of culturally-driven genetic assimilation. As we show, a careful analysis of the diverse effects of this mechanism derives some of the most crucial properties of the evolved linguistic capacity as a specific, functional communication system.

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References

1995Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure 1986Relevance: Communication and Cognition 1988Foundations of Cognitive Grammar 1991Thematic Proto-Roles and Argument Selection 1979Word Meaning and Montague Grammar 1990Natural language and natural selection 1997The symbolic species: the co-evolution of language and the brain 1993English verb classes and alternations : a preliminaryinvestigation

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2013Mirror neurons through the lens of epigenetics 2017The Role of the Baldwin Effect in the Evolution of Human Musicality 2015On the Evolving Biology of Language 2022Sweet Participation: The Evolution of Music as an Interactive Technology 2002Natural Selection and Cultural Selection in the Evolution of Communication 2016From experience to imagination: Language and its evolution as a social communication technology

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