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In J. L. Dessalles & L. Ghadakpour (Eds.), The Evolution of Language: 3rd International Conference (pp. 98-101). Paris, France: Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications
The Evolution of Subjacency without Universal Grammar:
Evidence from Artificial Language Learning
Michelle R. Ellefson & Morten H. Christiansen
Introduction
The acquisition and processing of language is governed by a number of universal constraints.
Undoubtedly, many of these constraints derive from innate properties of the human brain. Theories of
language evolution seek to explain how these constraints evolved in the hominid lineage. Some theories
suggest that the evolution of a Chomskyan universal grammar (UG) underlies these universal constraints.
More recently, an alternative perspective is gaining ground. This approach advocates a refocus in
evolutionary thinking; stressing the adaptation of linguistic structures to the human brain rather than vice
versa (e.g., Christiansen, 1994; Kirby, 1998). On this account, many language universals may reflect nonlinguistic,
cognitive constraints on learning and processing of sequential structure rather than innate UG.
If this is correct, it should be possible to uncover the source of some linguistic universal in human
performance on sequential learning tasks. This prediction has been borne out in previous work by
Christiansen (2000) in terms of an explanation of basic word order universals. In this paper, we take a
similar approach to one of the classic linguistic universals: subjacency.
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