The human language faculty: genetically determined? An approach to testable hypotheses.

Abstract

A kind of generation gap seems to divide researchers interested in the evolutionary status of the human language capacity. There is still opposition to the theory of a genetically determined universal or primal grammar. But although not well acquainted with the transformational-generative linguistic methodology that led to the hypothesis, an increasing number of linguists base their work with a "new grammar" on the acceptance of innateness of the human language faculty. It is proposed that dyslexia offers a hypothesis testable with the new advanced gene mapping, and that Creole Languages and Sign Languages of the Deaf may come to offer possibilities of similarly testable hypotheses.

• Authors: O Hansen
• Journal: Hereditas (Hereditas) Vol. 120 Issue 1 Pg. 61-9 ( 1994) ISSN: 0018-0661 [Print] England
• PMID: 8206785 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Topics

• Biological Evolution
• Genetics, Medical
• Humans
• Language
• Linguistics
• Models, Genetic