Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.
Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.
Sci Adv. 2020 May 27;6(22):eaba5090. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aba5090. eCollection 2020 May.
How language has evolved into more than 7000 varieties today remains a question that puzzles linguists, anthropologists, and evolutionary scientists. The genetic-biasing hypothesis of language evolution postulates that genes and language features coevolve, such that a population that is genetically predisposed to perceiving a particular linguistic feature would tend to adopt that feature in their language. Statistical studies that correlated a large number of genetic variants and linguistic features not only generated this hypothesis but also specifically pinpointed a linkage between and lexical tone. However, there is currently no direct evidence for this association and, therefore, the hypothesis. In an experimental study, we provide evidence to link with lexical tone perception in a sample of over 400 speakers of a tone language. In addition to providing the first direct evidence for the genetic-biasing hypothesis, our results have implications for further studies of linguistic anthropology and language disorders.
如今，语言是如何进化成 7000 多种仍然是令语言学家、人类学家和进化科学家感到困惑的问题。语言进化的遗传偏向假说认为，基因和语言特征共同进化，以至于在遗传上倾向于感知特定语言特征的人群往往会在他们的语言中采用该特征。对大量遗传变体和语言特征进行相关性统计研究不仅产生了这一假说，而且还特别指出了 和词汇声调之间的联系。然而，目前还没有这种关联的直接证据，因此也无法证实这一假说。在一项实验研究中，我们提供了证据，证明在一个声调语言的 400 多名说话者样本中， 与词汇声调感知有关。除了为遗传偏向假说提供了第一个直接证据外，我们的研究结果还对语言人类学和语言障碍的进一步研究具有重要意义。
