What Are the Unique Design Features of Language? Formal Tools for Comparative Claims

Authors:
Willem Zuidema;Arie Verhagen
Affiliations:
Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, Universityof Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Behavioural Biology, Leiden University, The Netherlands,;Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, The Netherlands
Venue:
Adaptive Behavior - Animals, Animats, Software Agents, Robots, Adaptive Systems
Year:
2010

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Abstract

What are the 芒聙聹design features芒聙聺 of human language that need to be explained? Starting from R. Jackendoff芒聙聶s scenario for the evolution of language, we argue that it is the transitions between stages that pose the crucial challenges for accounts of the evolution of language. We review a number of formalisms for conceptualizations, sound, and the mapping between them, and describe and evaluate the differences between each of Jackendoff芒聙聶s stages in terms of these formalisms. We conclude from this discussion that the transitions to combinatorial phonology, compositional semantics and hierarchical phrase structure can be formally characterized. Modeling these transitions is a major challenge for language evolution research.