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Abstract

A recent proposal (Hauser, Chomsky \& Fitch, 2002) suggests that the crucial defining property of human language is recursion. In this paper, following a critical analysis of what is meant by the term, I examine three reasons why the recursion-only hypothesis cannot be correct: (i) recursion is neither unique to language in humans, nor unique to our species, (ii) human language consists of many properties which are unique to it, and independent of recursion, and (iii) recursion may not even be necessary to human communication. Consequently, if recursion is not the key defining property of human language, it should not be granted special status in an evolutionary account of the system.

@inproceedings{parker06recursion,
  author={Anna R. Parker},
  title={Evolving the narrow language faculty: was recursion the pivotal step?},
  year={2006},
  pages={239-246},
  booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on the Evolution of Language},
  url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/parker06recursion.html}
}

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