Paper Info
Title
Language acquisition meets language evolution.
Abstract
Recent research suggests that language evolution is a process of cultural change, in which linguistic structures are shaped through repeated cycles of learning and use by domain-general mechanisms. This paper draws out the implications of this viewpoint for understanding the problem of language acquisition, which is cast in a new, and much more tractable, form. In essence, the child faces a problem of induction, where the objective is to coordinate with others (C-induction), rather than to model the structure of the natural world (N-induction). We argue that, of the two, C-induction is dramatically easier. More broadly, we argue that understanding the acquisition of any cultural form, whether linguistic or otherwise, during development, requires considering the corresponding question of how that cultural form arose through processes of cultural evolution. This perspective helps resolve the "logical" problem of language acquisition and has far-reaching implications for evolutionary psychology.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01049.x
COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Keywords
Field
DocType
Biological adaptation,Cognitive development,Cultural evolution,Evolutionary psychology,Induction,Language acquisition,Language evolution,Natural selection,Universal grammar
Problem of induction,Cognitive science,Sociology,Universal grammar,Comprehension approach,Evolutionary psychology,Language acquisition,Language development,Sociocultural evolution,Cognitive development
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
34
SP7.0
0364-0213
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
16
1.90
4
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Nick Chater136760.68
Morten H. Christiansen226944.17