Hauser Marc D, Chomsky Noam, Fitch W Tecumseh
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Science. 2002 Nov 22;298(5598):1569-79. doi: 10.1126/science.298.5598.1569.
We argue that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation. We suggest how current developments in linguistics can be profitably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience. We submit that a distinction should be made between the faculty of language in the broad sense (FLB) and in the narrow sense (FLN). FLB includes a sensory-motor system, a conceptual-intentional system, and the computational mechanisms for recursion, providing the capacity to generate an infinite range of expressions from a finite set of elements. We hypothesize that FLN only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language. We further argue that FLN may have evolved for reasons other than language, hence comparative studies might look for evidence of such computations outside of the domain of communication (for example, number, navigation, and social relations).
我们认为，对语言能力的理解需要大量的跨学科合作。我们提出了当前语言学的发展如何能够与进化生物学、人类学、心理学和神经科学的研究有效地结合起来。我们认为，应该区分广义的语言能力（FLB）和狭义的语言能力（FLN）。广义的语言能力包括一个感觉运动系统、一个概念意向系统以及递归的计算机制，它使人们能够从有限的元素集合中生成无限的表达。我们假设狭义的语言能力仅包括递归，并且是语言能力中唯一独特的人类组成部分。我们进一步认为，狭义的语言能力可能是由于语言之外的原因而进化的，因此比较研究可能会在交流领域之外寻找这种计算的证据（例如，数字、导航和社会关系）。
