Language Evolution and Recursive Thought

In simplest terms, language is the syntactic combination of concepts (semantics), which are mnemonically addressed with man-made sensory-based representations (word-forms). The evolution of language, therefore, is minimally the evolution of competency for learning the grammar and words of a given language. Apes have an ability to learn symbolconcept associations across several modalities, albeit an impoverished ability. No conclusive demonstration, however, exists for grammatical processing in non-human primates. Grammar, thus, appears to be the more recent and unique innovation. (Speech, also unique, is secondary as it relates to expression and as sign language is equally expressive.) Chomsky and colleagues famously proposed grammatical recursion is “recently evolved and unique to our species” and that it is the minimum characteristic of the faculty of language (Hauser et al., 2002; Chomsky, 2010). In The Recursive Mind, Michael Corballis disputes this, arguing recursion’s incorporation into other cognitive domains antedates its incorporation into language. Further, he argues the language faculty evolved for communication, not cognition