The Bilingual Brain Revisited: A Comment on Hagen (2008)

Abstract

L.K. Hagen (2008; Evolutionary Psychology, 6, 43–63) proposes that effortless first acquisition compared to more difficult second language acquisition provides evidence that the monolinguistic nature of our ancestral social environments implies a near-constant state of intergroup conflict. I argue to the contrary that the capacity to acquire multiple languages simultaneously in childhood without decrement to first language acquisition suggests that there was selection pressure for multilingualism. I further argue that this cognitive capacity is evidence for an ancestral environment in which distinct groups commingled (e.g., through long-term trading and marriage relationships) in relative security.