Newmeyer Frederick J
Department of Linguistics, University of Washington, Seattle.
Cogn Sci. 2017 Mar;41 Suppl 2:259-276. doi: 10.1111/cogs.12333. Epub 2016 Feb 1.
This article focuses on claims about the origin and evolution of language from the point of view of the formalist-functionalist debate in linguistics. In linguistics, an account of a grammatical phenomenon is considered "formal" if it accords center stage to the structural properties of that phenomenon, and "functional" if it appeals to the language user's communicative needs or to domain-general human capacities. The gulf between formalism and functionalism has been bridged in language evolution research, in that some leading formalists, Ray Jackendoff for one, appeal to functional mechanisms such as natural selection. In Jackendoff's view, the biological evolution of language has proceeded in stages, each stage improving communicative efficiency. This article calls into question that idea, pointing to the fact that well-understood purely historical processes suffice to explain the emergence of many grammatical properties. However, one central aspect of formalist linguistic theorizing-the idea of the autonomy of syntax-poses a challenge to the idea, central to most functionalist approaches, that the nature of grammar is a product of purely historical (as opposed to biological) evolution. The article concludes with a discussion of the origins of the autonomy of syntax, speculating that it may well have arisen over evolutionary (as opposed to historical) time.
本文从语言学中形式主义与功能主义之争的角度，聚焦于有关语言起源与演变的观点。在语言学中，如果对一种语法现象的描述将该现象的结构属性置于核心地位，那么这种描述就被认为是“形式主义的”；如果它诉诸语言使用者的交际需求或一般人类能力，那么这种描述就是“功能主义的”。在语言进化研究中，形式主义与功能主义之间的鸿沟已被弥合，因为一些主要的形式主义者，比如雷·杰肯道夫，诉诸自然选择等功能机制。在杰肯道夫看来，语言的生物进化是分阶段进行的，每个阶段都提高了交际效率。本文对这一观点提出质疑，指出一个事实，即充分理解的纯粹历史过程足以解释许多语法属性的出现。然而，形式主义语言理论的一个核心方面——句法自主性的观点——对大多数功能主义方法的核心观点提出了挑战，即语法的本质是纯粹历史（而非生物）进化的产物。本文最后讨论了句法自主性的起源，推测它很可能是在进化（而非历史）时间中出现的。
