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Language as ergonomic perfection

Massimo Piattelli-Palmarinia1, Roeland Hancocka2 and Thomas Bevera1 a1 Department of Linguistics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 massimo@u.arizona.edu http://dingo.sbs.arizona.edu/~massimo/ a2 Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721. rhancock@u.arizona.edu tgb@u.arizona.edu http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~psylin/bever.html

Article author query piattelli-palmarini m   hancock r   bever t

Abstract

Christiansen & Chater (C&C) have taken the interactionist approach to linguistic universals to an extreme, adopting the metaphor of language as an organism. This metaphor adds no insights to five decades of analyzing language universals as the result of interaction of linguistically unique and general cognitive systems. This metaphor is also based on an outmoded view of classical Darwinian evolution and has no clear basis in biology or cognition.

Language as shaped by the brain Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, and Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501 christiansen@cornell.edu http://www.psych.cornell.edu/people/Faculty/mhc27.html; Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom n.chater@ucl.ac.uk http://www.psychol.ucl.ac.uk/people/profiles/chater_nick.htm