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What Can an Extended Synthesis do for Biolinguistics: On the Needs and Benefits of Eco-Evo-Devo Program

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The Evolution of Social Communication in Primates

Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Evolution Research ((IDER,volume 1))

Abstract

Recent publications exploring the links between linguistics and biology suggest that in sharp contrast to the overly adaptationist and genocentric framework provided by the modern synthesis and at the heart of evolutionary psychology, the conceptual pluralism made available by an evo-devo-inspired extended synthesis could lead to more productive investigations in the domains of language evolution and development. But such promises have yet to be articulated in detail, and the challenges ahead should also be made explicit. This chapter focuses on a range of historical, conceptual, and empirical issues surrounding language and seeks to address what evo-devo could do for biolinguistics.

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Acknowledgments

The present piece is an overview of work in progress, much of it is carried out in collaboration with Evelina Leivada, Pedro Tiago Martins, Lluis Barceló i Coblijn, and Antonío Benitez-Burraco. I thank all of them for enriching my understanding of biolinguistics. Materials from Boeckx (2011a, 2013), Boeckx et al. (2013) have been reworked into the present piece. The present work was made possible through a Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant from the European Union (PIRG-GA-2009-256413), research funds from the Fundació Bosch i Gimpera, and a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (FFI-2010-20634).

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  1. ICREA—Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies, Barcelona, Spain

    Cedric Boeckx

  2. Department of General Linguistics, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Cedric Boeckx

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  1. Cedric Boeckx
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Correspondence to Cedric Boeckx .

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  1. Centre for Philosophy of Science, University of Lisbon AppEEL, Lisbon, Portugal

    Marco Pina

  2. Centre for Philosophy of Science, University of Lisbon AppEEL, Lisbon, Portugal

    Nathalie Gontier

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Boeckx, C. (2014). What Can an Extended Synthesis do for Biolinguistics: On the Needs and Benefits of Eco-Evo-Devo Program. In: Pina, M., Gontier, N. (eds) The Evolution of Social Communication in Primates. Interdisciplinary Evolution Research, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02669-5_16

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