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Nature 404, 441-442 (30 March 2000) | doi:10.1038/35006523
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Electrophysiologist
- TCG Lifesciences Ltd
- Kolkata India
Tenure-track Faculty Positions
- University of Michigan
- Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Survival of the clearest
Steven Pinker
Abstract
There are no fossils to show how language evolved. But evolutionary game theory is revealing how some of the defining features of human language could have been shaped by natural selection.
The study of the evolution of language, famously banned by the Société de Linguistique de Paris in 1866 and dismissed as idle story-telling ever since, has returned to respectability. Recent years have seen a flurry of articles and books1, 2, 3, 4, 5, a biannual research conference and now several papers by Martin Nowak and collaborators applying evolutionary game theory to the problem6, 7, 8, 9.
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