The language faculty that wasn't: a usage-based account of natural language recursion.
The language faculty that wasn't: a usage-based account of natural language recursion.
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DOI：
10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01182
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发表时间：
2015
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Chater N
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Christiansen MH;Chater N
在生成语法的传统中，语言能力一直在萎缩也许只包括递归机制。本文认为，即使这种观点的语言能力是过于扩张。我们首先认为，语言能力是很难调和与进化的考虑。然后，我们专注于递归作为一个详细的案例研究，认为我们处理递归结构的能力并不依赖于递归作为一个属性的语法，而是逐渐出现的背上域一般序列学习能力。来自遗传学、非人类灵长类动物的比较研究和认知神经科学的证据表明，人类已经进化出了复杂的序列学习技能，这些技能随后被用于适应语言。因此，对序列学习的限制在塑造语言结构的文化进化中发挥了重要作用，包括我们处理递归结构的有限能力。最后，我们重新评估了一些经常被认为需要语言能力的假设的关键因素。
In the generative tradition, the language faculty has been shrinking—perhaps to include only the mechanism of recursion. This paper argues that even this view of the language faculty is too expansive. We first argue that a language faculty is difficult to reconcile with evolutionary considerations. We then focus on recursion as a detailed case study, arguing that our ability to process recursive structure does not rely on recursion as a property of the grammar, but instead emerges gradually by piggybacking on domain-general sequence learning abilities. Evidence from genetics, comparative work on non-human primates, and cognitive neuroscience suggests that humans have evolved complex sequence learning skills, which were subsequently pressed into service to accommodate language. Constraints on sequence learning therefore have played an important role in shaping the cultural evolution of linguistic structure, including our limited abilities for processing recursive structure. Finally, we re-evaluate some of the key considerations that have often been taken to require the postulation of a language faculty.