Cultural Evolution of Language

Theories of cultural evolution challenge traditional ideas of innate linguistic structures, suggesting that the cultural adaptation of languages might play a significant role in shaping language universals.

Language Use and Social Influence: Social dynamics and the desire for clear communication drive language changes, with speakers introducing new forms, which are then selectively passed down.

Learning Biases: Biases in how children learn languages (like preferences for transparency in meaning) shape languages to become simpler and more regular over time.

Data Bottleneck: Language learners only encounter a limited set of linguistic data, leading to adaptations like recursive and compositional structures, which help in making language learnable and stable.

Language is passed down through generations via interactions within a speech community. This transmission influences language evolution, as children learn based on the linguistic behaviors of others.

Cultural Evolution and the Linguistic Enterprise

Cultural Transmission and Cultural Evolution

CULTURal EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE

Language is a culturally transmitted system, children learn the language of their speech community on the basis of the linguistic behaviour of that community.

Mechanisms for Cultural Evolution