We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
The brain plus the cultural transmission mechanism determine the nature of language.
- Authors
Smith, Kenny; Kirby, Simon; Smith, Andrew D. M.
- Abstract
We agree that language adapts to the brain, but we note that language also has to adapt to brain-external constraints, such as those arising from properties of the cultural transmission medium. The hypothesis that Christiansen & Chater (C&C) raise in the target article not only has profound consequences for our understanding of language, but also for our understanding of the biological evolution of the language faculty.
- Subjects
LANGUAGE research; PHYSIOLOGICAL adaptation; BRAIN; CONSTRAINTS (Linguistics); CULTURAL transmission; HYPOTHESIS; BIOLOGICAL evolution; ETHNOLOGY
- Publication
Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 2008, Vol 31, Issue 5, p533
- ISSN
0140-525X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0140525X08005244