Article
Version 2
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Membership Enforcement as a Driver of the Evolution of Language
Version 1
: Received: 15 May 2020 / Approved: 16 May 2020 / Online: 16 May 2020 (17:11:00 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 7 September 2022 / Approved: 7 September 2022 / Online: 7 September 2022 (08:13:41 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 7 September 2022 / Approved: 7 September 2022 / Online: 7 September 2022 (08:13:41 CEST)
How to cite: Ryabko, D.; Mbeju Moreno, A. Membership Enforcement as a Driver of the Evolution of Language. Preprints 2020, 2020050272. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0272.v2 Ryabko, D.; Mbeju Moreno, A. Membership Enforcement as a Driver of the Evolution of Language. Preprints 2020, 2020050272. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0272.v2
Abstract
A novel hypothesis concerning language evolution is advanced. It posits that languages have evolved as a means of binding individuals to a group, as well as for defining those groups. This means that language evolution has to be considered on the level of groups and not only on the level of individuals. This hypothesis helps to explain the huge diversity of human languages, as well as their complexity. Perhaps more importantly, it explains why adults lose the ability to learn languages with the ease that children possess.
Keywords
language evolution; evolution of altruism; group evolution
Subject
Social Sciences, Language and Linguistics
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Commenter: Daniil Ryabko
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