All or nothing: No half-Merge and the evolution of syntax

Robert C Berwick and Noam Chomsky

PLOS Biology, 2019, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-5

Abstract: In their Essay on the evolution of human language, Martins and Boeckx seek to refute what they call the “half-Merge fallacy”—the conclusion that the most elementary computational operation for human language syntax, binary set formation, or “Merge,” evolved in a single step. We show that their argument collapses. It is based on a serious misunderstanding of binary set formation as well as formal language theory. Furthermore, their specific evolutionary scenario counterproposal for a “two-step” evolution of Merge does not work. Although we agree with their Essay on several points, including that there must have been many steps in the evolution of human language and the importance of understanding how language and language syntax are implemented in the brain, we disagree that there is any justification, empirical or conceptual, for the decomposition of binary set formation into separate steps.In response to an Essay by Martins and Boeckx, this Formal Comment by Berwick and Chomsky argues that a crucial step in the evolution of human language can now be pinpointed to the appearance of a single new, but simple, computational operation.

Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pbio00:3000539

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000539

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