Culture trumps biology in language development, study argues
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 - 22:00
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Researchers construct evolutionary trees for four linguistic groups and conclude that cultures, not innate preferences, drive the language rules humans create – contrary to the findings of noted linguists Noam Chomsky and Joseph Greenberg.Are the rules of language encoded in our genes, or are they primarily shaped by the speaker's cultural context?