Towards an Understanding of Language Origins

Abstract

Understanding of language is difficult since we do not know how itis being processed in the brain. Many areas of the human brain areinvolved in the relevant activities, even for syntactic operations.Aspects of the language faculty have significant heritability. Thereseems to have been positive selection for enhanced linguistic abilityin our evolutionary past, even if most implied genes are unlikelyto affect only the language faculty. It seems that complex theoryof mind, teaching, complex cooperation and language together forman adaptive suite in the human race. It is plausible that genes changedin evolution so as to render the human brain more proficient in linguisticprocessing. An Evolutionary Neurogenetic Algorithm (ENGA) is alsoreviewed that holds promise that we shall ultimately understand howgenes can rig the development of cognitively specialised neuronalnetworks.