Biolinguistics (E-Journal)
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Eademne Sunt?
No full textThis paper is a reaction to Watumull and Roberts (2023, https://doi.org/10.5964/bioling.12393)
Pragmatic Grammar in Genus Homo
No full textThe question of how humans got language is crucial for understanding the uniqueness of the human mind and the cognitive resources and processes shared with nonhuman species. We discuss the origin of symbolic elements in hominins and how a pragmatic grammar emerged from action-based event-structures. In the context of comparative neurobiological findings, we report support for the global workspace hypothesis and social brain hypothesis. In addition, reverse linguistic analysis informs us about the particular role of a pragmatic grammar stage. We assume that this stage was associated with changes to the hominin genotype. Homo erectus may have used a pragmatic grammar which consisted of two or three symbolic elements. Extended syntax and morphology, including hierarchical branching, are not based on genotype changes but may reflect cultural accumulations related to socioecological adaptations. We conclude that the biological capacity for language may have emerged already 1.8 million years ago with the appearance of genus Homo
Why Large Language Models Are Poor Theories of Human Linguistic Cognition: A Reply to Piantadosi
No full textIn a recent manuscript entitled “Modern language models refute Chomsky’s approach to language”, Steven Piantadosi proposes that large language models such as GPT-3 can serve as serious theories of human linguistic cognition. In fact, he maintains that these models are significantly better linguistic theories than proposals emerging from within generative linguistics. The present note explains why this claim is wrong
Revisiting the Case for ‘Feral’ Humans Under the Light of the Human Self-Domestication Hypothesis: Focusing on Language
No full textContemporary descriptions of ‘feral’ children generally preclude any insightful inference about the language deficits exhibited by these children, as well as the ultimate causes of their problems with language. However, they have been regularly used to support the view that language acquisition requires a proper social environment in order to occur. In this paper, we revisit the case for ‘feral’ children with the viewpoint that human evolution entailed a process of self-domestication that parallels what we find in domesticated animals. Because feralization commonly occurs in nature and because it entails a partial reversion of features of domestication, this self-domestication approach to the evolution of language reassesses the case for ‘feral’ children, particularly when compared with present-day conditions involving abnormal patterns of socialization, whether they are genetically-triggered as in autism spectrum disorder, or environmentally-triggered, as in reactive attachment disorder
The Complexity of Trees, Universal Grammar and Economy Conditions
No full textIn this squib, I argue that the child faces a severe computational complexity problem in parsing even the simplest of trees: the number of possible trees consistent with UG grows exponentially as a function of the number of lexical items. Economy conditions have the result of drastically decreasing the complexity of the parsing task. I also discuss the relationship between UG, I-language, economy conditions and explanatory adequacy
The Strong Minimalist Thesis Is too Strong: Syntax Is More Than Just Merge
No full textThis paper raises specific puzzles for the Strong Minimalist Thesis (SMT) based on certain crosslinguistic patterns. I do so by pointing out that the SMT entails two undesirable consequences: first, the SMT assumes that the Borer-Chomsky Conjecture is true; in other words, that all syntactic variation across languages is due to lexical differences. Second, it assumes that there can be no ordering restrictions on Merge, because they would imply the existence of an independent linguistically proprietary entity. I first present crosslinguistic evidence from case and agreement that the Borer-Chomsky Conjecture alone is not sufficient to account for syntactic variation. I then present evidence for the existence of ordering restrictions on Merge, based on a cartographic distinction between high and low complementizers. I argue that both of these patterns are purely syntactic, in that they are independent of Merge. I conclude that these independent problems raise puzzles for saltationist theories of language evolution
A Parallel Derivation Theory of Adjuncts
No full textI present and argue for a theory of adjuncts according to which, adjuncts and their respective hosts are derived as separate, parallel objects that are not combined until forced to by the process of linearization. I formalize the notion of the workspace, and the workspace-based operation MERGE. Finally, I show that this approach to adjuncts naturally accounts for Adjunct Islands and Parasitic Gaps and is consistent with adjective ordering constraints
The Phonological Latching Network
No full textThis paper gives an analysis of an attractor neural network model dubbed the Phonological Latching Network. The model appears to reproduce certain quintessentially phonological phenomena, despite not having any of these phonological behaviours programmed or taught to the model. Rather, assimilation, segmental-OCP, and sonority sequencing appear to emerge spontaneously from the combination of a few basic brain-like ingredients with a phonology-like feature system. The significance of this can be interpreted from two angles: firstly, the fact that the model spontaneously produces attested natural language patterns can be taken as evidence of the model’s neural and psychological plausibility; and secondly, it provides a potential explanation for why these patters appear to frequently in natural language grammars. Namely, they are a consequence of latching dynamics in the brain