Language evolution and complexity considerations: The no half-Merge fallacy

Recently, prominent theoretical linguists have argued for an explicit scenario for the evolution of the human language capacity on the basis of its computational properties. Concretely, the simplicity of a minimalist formulation of the operation Merge, which allows humans to recursively compute hier...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Martins, Pedro Tiago, Boeckx, Cedric
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/148564
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/148564
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Adquisició del llenguatge
Psicolingüística
Evolució humana
Language acquisition
Psycholinguistics
Human evolution
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spelling Language evolution and complexity considerations: The no half-Merge fallacyMartins, Pedro TiagoBoeckx, CedricAdquisició del llenguatgePsicolingüísticaEvolució humanaLanguage acquisitionPsycholinguisticsHuman evolutionRecently, prominent theoretical linguists have argued for an explicit scenario for the evolution of the human language capacity on the basis of its computational properties. Concretely, the simplicity of a minimalist formulation of the operation Merge, which allows humans to recursively compute hierarchical relations in language, has been used to promote a sudden-emergence, single-mutation scenario. In support of this view, Merge is said to be either fully present or fully absent: one cannot have half-Merge. On this basis, it is inferred that the emergence of our fully fledged language capacity had to be sudden. Thus, proponents of this view draw a parallelism between the formal complexity of the operation at the computational level and the number of evolutionary steps it must imply. Here, we examine this argument in detail and show that the jump from the atomicity of Merge to a single-mutation scenario is not valid and therefore cannot be used as justification for a theory of language evolution alongPublic Library of Science (PLoS)2020202020192020info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion7 p.application/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2445/148564Articles publicats en revistes (Filologia Catalana i Lingüística General)reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunyainstname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)InglésReproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000389PLoS Biology, 2019, vol. 17, num. 11, p. e3000389https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000389cc-by (c) Martins, Pedro Tiago et al., 2019http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/esinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:recercat.cat:2445/1485642026-05-29T05:05:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Language evolution and complexity considerations: The no half-Merge fallacy
title Language evolution and complexity considerations: The no half-Merge fallacy
spellingShingle Language evolution and complexity considerations: The no half-Merge fallacy
Martins, Pedro Tiago
Adquisició del llenguatge
Psicolingüística
Evolució humana
Language acquisition
Psycholinguistics
Human evolution
title_short Language evolution and complexity considerations: The no half-Merge fallacy
title_full Language evolution and complexity considerations: The no half-Merge fallacy
title_fullStr Language evolution and complexity considerations: The no half-Merge fallacy
title_full_unstemmed Language evolution and complexity considerations: The no half-Merge fallacy
title_sort Language evolution and complexity considerations: The no half-Merge fallacy
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Martins, Pedro Tiago
Boeckx, Cedric
author Martins, Pedro Tiago
author_facet Martins, Pedro Tiago
Boeckx, Cedric
author_role author
author2 Boeckx, Cedric
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Adquisició del llenguatge
Psicolingüística
Evolució humana
Language acquisition
Psycholinguistics
Human evolution
topic Adquisició del llenguatge
Psicolingüística
Evolució humana
Language acquisition
Psycholinguistics
Human evolution
description Recently, prominent theoretical linguists have argued for an explicit scenario for the evolution of the human language capacity on the basis of its computational properties. Concretely, the simplicity of a minimalist formulation of the operation Merge, which allows humans to recursively compute hierarchical relations in language, has been used to promote a sudden-emergence, single-mutation scenario. In support of this view, Merge is said to be either fully present or fully absent: one cannot have half-Merge. On this basis, it is inferred that the emergence of our fully fledged language capacity had to be sudden. Thus, proponents of this view draw a parallelism between the formal complexity of the operation at the computational level and the number of evolutionary steps it must imply. Here, we examine this argument in detail and show that the jump from the atomicity of Merge to a single-mutation scenario is not valid and therefore cannot be used as justification for a theory of language evolution along
publishDate 2019
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2019
2020
2020
2020
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2445/148564
url https://hdl.handle.net/2445/148564
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000389
PLoS Biology, 2019, vol. 17, num. 11, p. e3000389
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000389
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv cc-by (c) Martins, Pedro Tiago et al., 2019
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv cc-by (c) Martins, Pedro Tiago et al., 2019
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv 7 p.
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Public Library of Science (PLoS)
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Articles publicats en revistes (Filologia Catalana i Lingüística General)
reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
instname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
instname_str Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
reponame_str Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
collection Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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