Chomsky Noam
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2017 Feb;24(1):200-203. doi: 10.3758/s13423-016-1078-6.
There is substantial evidence that the human language capacity (LC) is a species-specific biological property, essentially unique to humans, invariant among human groups, and dissociated from other cognitive systems. Each language, an instantiation of LC, consists of a generative procedure that yields a discrete infinity of hierarchically structured expressions with semantic interpretations, hence a kind of "language of thought" (LOT), along with an operation of externalization (EXT) to some sensory-motor system, typically sound. There is mounting evidence that generation of LOT observes language-independent principles of computational efficiency and is based on the simplest computational operations, and that EXT is an ancillary process not entering into the core semantic properties of LOT and is the primary locus of the apparent complexity, diversity, and mutability of language. These conclusions are not surprising, since the internal system is acquired virtually without evidence in fundamental respects, and EXT relates it to sensory-motor systems that are unrelated to it. Even such properties as the linear order of words appear to be reflexes of the sensory motor system, not available to generation of LOT. The limited evidence from the evolutionary record lends support to these conclusions, suggesting that LC emerged with Homo sapiens or not long after, and has not evolved since human groups dispersed.
有大量证据表明，人类语言能力（LC）是一种物种特有的生物学特性，本质上是人类所独有的，在人类群体中保持不变，并且与其他认知系统相分离。每种语言作为LC的一种实例化，由一个生成过程组成，该过程产生具有语义解释的离散无限的层次结构表达式，因此是一种“思想语言”（LOT），同时还伴随着向某种感觉运动系统（通常是声音）的外化（EXT）操作。越来越多的证据表明，LOT的生成遵循与语言无关的计算效率原则，并基于最简单的计算操作，而且EXT是一个辅助过程，不涉及LOT的核心语义属性，并且是语言明显的复杂性、多样性和可变性的主要所在。这些结论并不令人惊讶，因为内部系统在基本方面几乎是在没有证据的情况下习得的，而EXT将其与与之无关的感觉运动系统联系起来。甚至像单词的线性顺序这样的属性似乎也是感觉运动系统的反映，而不是LOT生成所具备的。来自进化记录的有限证据支持了这些结论，表明LC在智人出现时或之后不久出现，并且自人类群体分散以来就没有进化过。
