Neanderthal language? Just-so stories take center stage
Name
Berwick-2013-Neanderthal language.pdf
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314.48 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
68b7509f3404f7a16bbb5df37881a668
Author(s)
Berwick, Robert C.
Hauser, Marc D.
Tattersall, Ian
Date Issued
September 2013
Journal
Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher
Frontiers Research Foundation
Citation
Berwick, Robert C., Marc D. Hauser, and Ian Tattersall. “Neanderthal language? Just-so stories take center stage.” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Dediu and Levinson (2013) link two extraordinary claims: first, humans and Neanderthals were one and the same species and second, “Speech and language … are ancient, being present in a modern-like form over half a million years ago in the common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans, the result of evolution in the prior one million years or so as H. heidelbergensis evolved from H. erectus” (p. 12). These claims are marred by their selective review of the literature; the use of equivocal evidence as definitive support for their interpretation; and the lack of any evolutionary evidence regarding the computations and representations that mediate modern linguistic competence.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00671
