Language evolution and the appearance of design argument
Humans appear to be designed for acquiring and using natural language. Is this appearance of design evidence for biological adaptations for language? In my talk I will argue that it is not. I will show results from a simple formal model, based on a context-free grammar induction algorithm, that illustrates how the cultural transmission of language leads to a form of cultural evolution where language adapts to the brain rather than vice versa. The main result from this work is a negative statement, about the way results from learnability theory and child language acquisition research have been (mis)used to argue for innate components of the language faculty.
Can we use the same framework to derive more positive results? Specifically, can we use it to explain the existence of specific language universals and understand the roles of biological and cultural evolution, nurture and nature? In the second half of my talk I will argue that this is possible in principle. I will present the design of a new model of the acquisition and evolution of syntactic constructions for argument structure. In this model acquisition leads to language change and language change to language universals. I will discuss how biological evolution of the acquisition procedure can indirectly shape the outcome of the cultural process.