Universal Grammar, Neanderthals, and the Evolution of Language—Respons...

Dec 1, 2015 by

[Many thanks to Martin W. Lewis and Matthew Jobin for insightful discussions of some of the issues considered in this post.]   The next set of objections to the Universal Grammar (UG) theory raised by Vyvyan Evans concerns its...

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Were the Neandertal a symbolic species?

Oct 18, 2010 by

While earlier research painted the Neanderthal, our evolutionary cousins, as brutish and dumb, more recent research credits them not only with physical strength and endurance but with “modern behavior”, such as making...

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Language is what makes us human

Aug 27, 2010 by

In the last couple of postings I talked about Chomsky’s theory of Universal Grammar (Principles & Parameters Theory), which is — sadly — misrepresented by Lera Boroditsky in her The Wall Street Journal article....

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