Biolinguistics (E-Journal)
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A Theory That Never Was: Wrong Way to the “Dawn of Speech”
No full textRecent literature argues that a purportedly long-standing theory—so-called “laryngeal descent theory”—in speech evolution has been refuted (Boë et al., 2019, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw3916). However, an investigation into the relevant source material reveals that the theory described has never been a prominent line of thinking in speech-centric sciences. The confusion arises from a fundamental misunderstanding: the argument that the descent of the larynx and the accompanying changes in the hominin vocal tract expanded the range of possible speech sounds for human ancestors (a theory that enjoys wide interdisciplinary support) is mistakenly interpreted as a belief that all speech was impossible without such changes—a notion that was never widely endorsed in relevant literature. This work aims not to stir controversy but to highlight important historical context in the study of speech evolution
Metatheoretical Linguistics: A Philosopher’s Guide
No full textIn this article, we summarise and critically evaluate Ryan Nefdt’s The Philosophy of Theoretical Linguistics: A Contemporary Outlook (2024). In this book, Nefdt brings the tools of philosophy to bear on contemporary linguistics, targeting perennial debates in syntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonology, and the evolution of language. In so doing, Nefdt sketches several tantalising paths for progress on these topics. Although some of Nefdt’s arguments are underdeveloped, this book serves as a worthwhile introduction to the philosophy of linguistics
Lambda Abstraction as a Factor in Human Uniqueness
No full textThere appear to be some qualitative differences between the conceptual repertoire of humans and that of other animals. We propose that the mental operation of Lambda Abstraction may shed some light on this distinction. More specifically, we claim that humans and only humans make use of mental representations constructed with the rule of Lambda Abstraction, which enables them to entertain concepts that can be used for entities that are not necessarily within their domain of experience. In addition to defining new types of concepts, Lambda Abstraction has played a crucial role in unlocking the potential for semantically consequential Internal Merge and quantification. This paper highlights the fact that research on language evolution should focus more on the transformative cognitive consequences of the interface between syntax and thought systems
Social Evolution and Commitment: Bridging the Gap Between Formal Linguistic Theories and Language Evolution Research
No full textThis article argues based on some concrete empirical evidence that what is called “(social) commitment” is grammaticalized in human language at the latest stage in the evolution of syntax. It is further argued that as a result of this grammaticalization process, our ancestors acquired a way of making their linguistic communication sufficiently trustable/reliable, by encoding the signaler’s liability to the truthfulness of what is communicated. That is, the presence of commitment as a concrete grammatical element provided our species with a way of (indirectly) solving the problem of dishonesty of linguistic signals. The proposal is made in such a way that its validity can be tested by experimental means, and hence it is hoped that the model presented in this article facilitates important collaborative works among theoretical linguists, (evolutionary) biologists, and other experimentalists. Overall, the idea laid out here aims to bridge the gap between formal linguistics and language evolution studies
Rebuttal to "Merge Is Not 'Lerge'"
No full textThis paper is a rebuttal to Gärtner (2023, https://doi.org/10.5964/bioling.11715)
A Formalization of Agree as a Derivational Operation
No full textUsing the framework based on set-theory, I develop a formal definition of Agree as a syntactic operation. I begin by constructing a formal definition of a version of long-distance Agree in which a structurally higher element values a feature on a structurally lower element, and modify that definition to reflect various versions of Agree that have been proposed in the “minimalist” literature. I then discuss the theoretical implications of these formal definitions, arguing that Agree requires a new conception of the lexicon, and unjustifiably violates NTC in all its non-vacuous forms
The Search for Minimal Search: A Graph-Theoretic Approach
No full textThis paper examines Minimal Search, an operation that is at the core of current Minimalist inquiry. We argue that, given Minimalist assumptions about structure building consisting of unordered set-formation, there are serious difficulties in defining Minimal Search as a search algorithm. Furthermore, some problematic configurations for Minimal Search (namely, {XP, YP} and {X, Y}) are argued to be an artefact of these set-theoretic commitments. However, if unordered sets are given up as the format of structural descriptions in favour of directed graphs such that Merge(X, Y) creates an arc from X to Y, Minimal Search can be straightforwardly characterised as a sequential deterministic search algorithm: the total order required to define MS as a sequential search algorithm is provided by structure building
Reconceptualizing Merge in Search for the Link With Brain Oscillatory Nature of Language in Biolinguistics
No full textThis brief piece argues that it is desirable to reconceptualize the syntactic combinatorial mechanism Merge as a higher-order function that takes two functions (= a selector function and its ‘argument’ function) and yields a composite function in the context of I-language. On this functional characterization of Merge, all of the elements involved in Merge are conceived as functions as well: lexical items (LIs) as input of Merge and syntactic objects (SOs) as both input and output of Merge. It is claimed that this perspective of Merge is a bridging step toward further facilitating the mesoscopic-level (= dynome-level) investigation of the brain oscillatory nature of human language in the field of biolinguistics. In this framework, I make the case that it would be possible to analyze the brain oscillatory nature of Merge by appealing to the mathematical operation of the Fourier transform (FT) to the extent that Merge-related brain oscillations as physical waves can be captured by complex exponential functions/trigonometric functions in the temporal domain
Merge vs. "Lerge:" Problems of Association
No full textIt is shown that the proposal of identifying Merge and the Leibnizian addition operator runs up against the obstacle that the latter is associative while the former is not. The confound is attributed to insufficient appreciation of the difference between a calculus for natural language syntax and a calculus of concepts