The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who HasIt, and How Did It Evolve?

인간의 언어 기관이 대체로 다른 동물과 크게 다를 바 없고, 그나마 차이가 있는 작은 부분(FLN) 조차도 진화적 적응이 아니라 부산물일 가능성이 있다는 주장. 촘스키의 기존 주장과 크게 달라서 여러 사람들을 당황하게 만든 논문.

Abstract

We argue that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation. We suggest how current developments in linguistics can be profitably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience. We submit that a distinction should be made between the faculty of language in the broad sense (FLB) and in the narrow sense (FLN). FLB includes a sensory-motor system, a conceptual-intentional system, and the computational mechanisms for recursion, providing the capacity to generate an infinite range of expressions from a finite set of elements. We hypothesize that FLN only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language. We further argue that FLN may have evolved for reasons other than language, hence comparative studies might look for evidence of such computations outside of the domain of communication (for example, number, navigation, and social relations).

web.stanford.edu/class/linguist197a/hauser.pdf

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언어 진화에 대한 세 가지 가설:

• Hypothesis 1: FLB (including FLN) is strictly homologous to animal communication.
• Hypothesis 2: FLB (including FLN) is a derived, uniquely human adaptation for language.
• Hypothesis 3: Only FLN is uniquely human.

이 중 저자들이 지지하는 가설은 H3. FLB에 대해서는 H1과 같지만 FLN은 인간 종에서 최근에 일어난 진화적 변화의 산물이라는 주장. 특히 “최근의 언어학 이론에 따르면(명시하지 않고 있지만 아마도 Minimalist program)” FLN에 필요한 계산은 극도로 제한적이고 복잡하지 않음. FLN이 그토록 단순하다면 FLN이 진화적 적응의 결과라고 볼 필요가 없으며, 적응주의적 주장을 하려는 측에서 근거를 제시해야 함.

Hypothesis 3 raises the possibility that structural details of FLN may result from such preexisting constraints, rather than from direct shaping by natural selection targeted specifically at communication. …

During evolution, the modular and highly domain-specific system of recursion may have become penetrable and domain-general. This opened the way for humans, perhaps uniquely, to apply the power of recursion to other problems. This change from domain-specific to domain-general may have been guided by particular selective pressures, unique to our evolutionary past, or as a consequence (by-product) of other kinds of neural reorganization.