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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 26, 2026

Dissociation of the Confounding Influences of Expectancy and Integrative Difficulty Residing in Anomalous Sentences in Event-related Potential Studies
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The evolution of syntax: an exaptationist perspective.

W Tecumseh Fitch1

  • 1Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna Vienna, Austria.

Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience
|December 31, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The evolution of human language, particularly syntax, likely arose from exaptation, where pre-existing non-linguistic systems were repurposed for communication. Biological evidence supports this, suggesting origins in motor control and spatial reasoning.

Keywords:
Broca’s areaarcuate fasciculuscognitive biologycomparative neuroscienceevolution of languagehuman evolutionsyntaxvocal imitation

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Area of Science:

  • Linguistics
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Human language evolution involves complex systems for signaling, semantics, and syntax.
  • Two main theories on syntax evolution: continuist (roots in animal communication) and exaptationist (function change).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To argue for the exaptationist perspective in language evolution.
  • To propose specific exaptationist hypotheses for the evolution of spoken language syntax.

Main Methods:

  • Review of biological evidence supporting exaptation.
  • Formulation of three distinct exaptationist hypotheses for syntax evolution.
  • Discussion of homology (primates) and convergence (birds) for hypothesis testing.

Main Results:

  • Abundant biological evidence supports the exaptationist view of language evolution.
  • Core syntactic components may have originated from non-linguistic functions like motor control, spatial reasoning, or non-verbal thought.
  • Three hypotheses propose exaptationist origins for vocal control, the arcuate fasciculus, and Broca's area (BA 45).

Conclusions:

  • The exaptationist perspective is crucial for understanding language evolution.
  • Specific neural circuits for language likely evolved from precursor systems serving other functions.
  • Comparative studies of primates and birds are vital for testing these evolutionary hypotheses.