Work

What’s Special About Human Language? The Contents of the “Narrow Language Faculty” Revisited

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: In this review we re-evaluate the recursion-only hypothesis, advocated by Fitch, Hauser and Chomsky (Hauser, Chomsky & Fitch, 2002; Fitch, Hauser & Chomsky, 2005). According to the recursion-only hypothesis, the property that distinguishes human language from animal communication systems is recursion, which refers to the potentially infinite embedding of one linguistic representation within another of the same type. This hypothesis predicts (1) that non-human primates and other animals lack the ability to learn recursive grammar, and (2) that recursive grammar is the sole cognitive mechanism that is unique to human language. We first review animal studies of recursive grammar, before turning to the claim that recursion is a property of all human languages. Finally, we discuss other views on what abilities may be unique to human language.

Source: Language and Linguistics Compass

DOI: 10.1002/lnc3.355

Authors: Matthew J. Traxler, Megan Boudewyn, Jessica Loudermilk

Institution: University of California, Davis

Language: English

Topic: Language and cultural evolution

Subfield: Cultural Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Awards: Syntactic Priming in Comprehension, Reading Skill: Modeling Individual and Text Interactions, G6591344436, G98970637