The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?

Full Abstract

We argue that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation. We suggest how current developments in linguistics can be profitably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience. We submit that a distinction should be made between the faculty of language in the broad sense (FLB) and in the narrow sense (FLN). FLB includes a sensory-motor system, a conceptual-intentional system, and the computational mechanisms for recursion, providing the capacity to generate an infinite range of expressions from a finite set of elements. We hypothesize that FLN only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language. We further argue that FLN may have evolved for reasons other than language, hence comparative studies might look for evidence of such computations outside of the domain of communication (for example, number, navigation, and social relations).

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Author information

Author/s: Hauser, Marc D (MD); Chomsky, Noam (N); Fitch, W Tecumseh (WT);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. mdhauser(-atsign-)wjh.harvard.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Review

Journal: Science (New York, N.Y.) (Science), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Nov; vol 298 (issue 5598) : pp 1569-79

Dates: Created 2002/11/26; Completed 2002/12/20; Revised 2007/03/19;

PMID: 12446899, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Science. 2002 Nov 22;298(5598):1565-6. (PMID: 12446896)

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