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What are the Units of Language Evolution?

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Abstract

Universal Darwinism provides a methodology to study the evolution of anatomical form and sociocultural behavior that centers on defining the units and levels of selection, and it identifies the conditions whereby natural selection operates. In previous work, I have examined how this selection-focused evolutionary epistemology may be universalized to include theories that associate with an extended synthesis. Applied evolutionary epistemology is a metatheoretical framework that understands any and all kinds of evolution as phenomena where units evolve by mechanisms at levels of an ontological hierarchy; and it provides three heuristics to search for these units, levels and mechanisms. The heuristics are applicable to language and sociocultural evolution, and here, we give an in-depth analysis of how the unit-heuristic can be implemented into language origin and evolution studies. The importance of developing hierarchy theories is also more fully explained.

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Abbreviations

LE:

Language evolution

EE:

Evolutionary epistemology

AEE:

Applied evolutionary epistemology

SVT:

Supra-laryngeal vocal tract

I-language:

Internal language

E-language:

External language

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Acknowledgements

The work was written with the support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, grant ID SFRH/BPD/89195/2012 and project number UID/FIL/00678/2013). Cordial thanks go out to the editors of this special issue for inviting me to contribute, and to the referees for their helpful comments.

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  1. Applied Evolutionary Epistemology Lab, Centre for Philosophy of Science, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Nathalie Gontier

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  1. Nathalie Gontier
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Correspondence to Nathalie Gontier.

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Gontier, N. What are the Units of Language Evolution?. Topoi 37, 235–253 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-017-9474-8

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