AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO THE ROLE OF FREER IDERAVOIDANCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY

摘要

The existence of linguistic change and variation is inevitable: human languageis genetically underspecified and culturally transmitted. However, variation andchange are not dysfunctional. While there has not been enough time for human language of the kind we possess to become fully genetically specified (Worden,1995), we should not assume that, given enough time, it would do so. On thecontrary, it is reasonable to suppose that there has been pressure for it to remainunderspecified (cf. Dunbar, 2003, 230). If language did not change and vary, itwould be considerably less flexible and would lack the means to convey indexicalas well as propositional information.