Language evolution and complexity considerations: The no half-Merge fallacy.

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Evolutionary Biology
• Computational Linguistics

Background:

• Theoretical linguists propose a sudden emergence of human language capacity based on computational properties.
• The minimalist operation Merge, crucial for hierarchical language structures, is presented as an all-or-nothing mechanism.
• This has led to a single-mutation hypothesis for the evolution of language.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically examine the argument linking the computational atomicity of Merge to a sudden language evolution scenario.
• To evaluate the validity of inferring evolutionary steps from the formal complexity of linguistic operations.
• To challenge the justification of a single-mutation theory for language evolution based on Merge.

Main Methods:

• Detailed analysis of the argument connecting Merge's properties to evolutionary scenarios.
• Examination of the logical inference from computational simplicity to evolutionary suddenness.
• Critique of the parallelism drawn between formal complexity and the number of evolutionary steps.

Main Results:

• The argument that the atomicity of Merge necessitates a sudden, single-mutation evolutionary event is found to be invalid.
• The inference from the computational level (Merge's properties) to the evolutionary level (number of steps) is not logically sound.
• The study demonstrates that the simplicity of Merge does not support a sudden-emergence theory of language evolution.

Conclusions:

• The proposed parallelism between Merge's atomicity and a single-mutation scenario for language evolution is flawed.
• The emergence of human language capacity cannot be justified as a sudden event solely based on the properties of Merge.
• Alternative evolutionary pathways for language must be considered beyond the single-mutation hypothesis.