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Elman, J. L. (1999) The emergence of language: A conspiracy theory. In B. MacWhinney, editor, Emergence of Language. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
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Origins of language:
A conspiracy theory
Jeffrey L. Elman
Department of Cognitive Science
University of California, San Diego
elman@cogsci.ucsd.edu

Introduction Language is puzzling. On the one hand, there are compelling reasons to believe that the posses­ sion of language by humans has deep biological roots. We are the only species that has a commu­ nication system with the complexity and richness of language. There are cases of non­human primates who can be taught (sometimes only with heroic effort) some aspects of human language, but their performance comes nowhere close to those of a six­year old child. Second, although lan­ guages differ, but there are also striking similarities across widely divergent cultures. Finally, there are significant similarities in the patterns of language acquisition across very different lin­ guistic communities. These (and other considerations as well) all suggest that species­specific biological factors play a critical role in human's ability to acquire and process language. So what is puzzling? First, it is not at all clear what the biological foundations are. What precisely do we mean when we say that the human propensity for language is innate (or as Stephen Pinker puts it, is an ``instinct'', Pinker, 1994). Do we only mean, when we say that ``lan­ guage is innate'' that one must possess a human genome in order to speak (hear, read, sign)? This is not terribly informative; after all, getting a driver's license also requires a human genome (although driving the freeways of Southern California, one sometimes wonders). But we do not view this as an especially useful explanation of the origin and nature of the skills and competen­ cies which are required to drive a car. Second, when we actually look at the genome, we see little that suggests any obvious connection with language. The recurring lesson from recent genetic research is that behaviors typically rest on the interaction of large numbers of genes, each of which may ...
BibTex
@incollection{elman99theEmergence,
  author={J. L. Elman},
  title={The emergence of language: A conspiracy theory},
  year={1999},
  address={Hillsdale, NJ},
  editor={B. MacWhinney},
  publisher={Lawrence Earlbaum Associates},
  booktitle={Emergence of Language},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/elman99theEmergence.html}
}

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