CHAPTER 8 An Evolutionar yPerspective on the

Architecture

8.1 The dialectic

We now return to an important aspect of the hypothesis that the ability to acquire a language is a human cognitive
specialization. As observed in section 4.8, such cognitive specialization must be coded somehow in the genes, which
determine, very indirectly, how the brain is built. In order for these genes to come into existence, some evolutionary
step is required at some time since humans diverged from our nearest relatives, the chimpanzees, aboutfive million
years ago.

If we are to take full responsibility for the hypothesis, then, it is incumbent on us to address the evolution of the
languagecapacity. This chapter suggestssomeelementsofa possiblescenario, inpartbecauseofitsintrinsicinterest,in
part towards justification of the UG hypothesis, but also in part as a way to further investigate and refine the
architecture of the language faculty proposed in Chapters 5 and 6.

A number of factors stand in the way of developing evolutionary arguments concerning language. First of all, it is a
running joke that in 1866 the Linguistic Society of Paris expressly prohibited papers on the origins of language.
Evidentlytoomanypeoplehad made fools ofthemselves;today'slinguistsdon'twanttofallintothesametrap. On the
otherhand, 1866 was only nineyears after thepublication ofThe Origin of Species, and in recentyears our understanding
of evolutionary principles in general and of human origins in particular has expanded vastly. Now that evolutionary
talk is rampant, plenty of other people are happy to speculate about evolutionof language (e.g. Calvin 1990; Corballis
1991; Deacon 1997; Dennett 1991; Donald 1991)—without taking into account much of what is really known about
language. So, as Derek Bickerton suggests (Calvin and Bickerton 2000), it is important for linguists to