Reflexivity, Functional Reference, and Modularity: Alternative Targets for Language Origins.
Researchers of language origins typically try to explain how compositional communication might evolve to bridge the gap between animal communication and natural language. However, as an explanatory target, compositionality has been shown to be problematic for a gradualist approach to the evolution o...
| Publicado en: | Philosophy of Science Vol. 88; no. 5; pp. 1234 - 1246 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Cambridge University Press
Dec2021
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| Sumario: | Researchers of language origins typically try to explain how compositional communication might evolve to bridge the gap between animal communication and natural language. However, as an explanatory target, compositionality has been shown to be problematic for a gradualist approach to the evolution of language. In this article, I suggest that reflexivity provides an apt and plausible alternative target that does not succumb to the problems that compositionality faces. I further explain how protoreflexivity, which depends on functional reference, gives rise to complex communication systems via modular composition. |
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