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Abstract

I describe and assess the Minimalist Program (MP) as an approach to the evolution of language. The MP is less about evolution than explanation, but if its attempt to vindicate a certain idea of 'design perfection' was successful, a deeper level of explanation would be achieved than historical narrative and functional explanation affords, and the evolution problem would be solved along the way. Arguably, a minimalist methodology is also a necessary component in any explanatory approach to language evolution, no matter its theoretical orientation. While these are clear virtues, I question the MP's central explanatory claim, that language can be understood as an optimal solution to the problem of satisfying interface conditions imposed by pre-linguistic cognitive systems.

@inproceedings{hinzen06evolang,
  author={Wolfram Hinzen},
  title={Minimalist foundations of language evolution: on the question of why language is the way it is},
  year={2006},
  pages={115-122},
  booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hinzen06evolang.html}
}

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