An Updated Evolutionary Research Programme for the Evolution of Language

Abstract

Language evolution, intended as an open problem in the evolutionary research programme, will be here analyzed from the theoretical perspective advanced by the supporters of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. Four factors (niche construction, inclusive inheritance, phenotypic plasticity, developmental constraints) and two associated concepts (constructive development and reciprocal causation) will be matched with a selection of critical examples concerning genus Homo evolution, relevant for the evolution of language, such as the evolution of hominin life-history traits, the enlargement of the social group, increased cooperation among individuals, behavioral change and innovations (the use of fire), heterochronic modifications leading to increased synaptic plasticity. A particular form of niche construction will be considered (namely counteractive niche construction or cultural mitigation of selection) in a multilevel framework (from the ecological to the molecular level). It will be argued that the four points mentioned above prove to be fundamental explanatory tools to understand how language might have emerged as a result of a gene-culture coevolutionary dynamics.