Fisher Simon E, Marcus Gary F
Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK.
Nat Rev Genet. 2006 Jan;7(1):9-20. doi: 10.1038/nrg1747.
The human capacity to acquire complex language seems to be without parallel in the natural world. The origins of this remarkable trait have long resisted adequate explanation, but advances in fields that range from molecular genetics to cognitive neuroscience offer new promise. Here we synthesize recent developments in linguistics, psychology and neuroimaging with progress in comparative genomics, gene-expression profiling and studies of developmental disorders. We argue that language should be viewed not as a wholesale innovation, but as a complex reconfiguration of ancestral systems that have been adapted in evolutionarily novel ways.
人类习得复杂语言的能力在自然界中似乎是无与伦比的。这一非凡特质的起源长期以来一直难以得到充分解释,但从分子遗传学到认知神经科学等领域的进展带来了新的希望。在这里,我们将语言学、心理学和神经影像学的最新发展与比较基因组学、基因表达谱分析以及发育障碍研究的进展进行了综合。我们认为,语言不应被视为一种全面的创新,而应被视为祖先系统的复杂重新配置,这些系统在进化过程中以全新的方式得到了适应。