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| Authoritative: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X08005165 (Publisher's PDF... likely be available here.) |
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Abstract
That language is shaped to fit the human brain is close to the Chomskyan position. The target article by Christiansen & Chater (C&C) assumes an entity, outside individual heads. What is the nature of this entity? Linguistic niche-construction and co-evolution of language and genes are possible, with some of what evolved being language-specific. Recent generative theory postulates much less than the old Universal Grammar (UG).BibTex
@article{hurford08BBScomments,
author={J. Hurford},
title={Niche-construction, co-evolution, and domain-specificity},
journal={Behavioral and Brain Sciences},
year={2008},
volume={31},
number={5},
pages={526-526},
doi={10.1017/S0140525X08005165},
url={http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~amag/langev/paper/hurford08BBScomments.html}
}