News Finding: Teaching, he says, was a crucial part of the process.
Paper Finding: Furthermore, we do not accept that language is primarily 'for' either thinking (as per the current Minimalist Grammar version of formalist linguistic theory) or communication, construed as exchanging coded meanings (as per the functionalist approach).
News Context: His research suggests that producing complex tools spurred an increase in brain size and other aspects of hominin evolution, including--perhaps--the emergence of language. But language couldn't just pop out fully formed, like Athena from the head of Zeus. Teaching, he says, was a crucial part of the process.
Paper Context: It does not postulate the existence of infinitely generative rules (a grammar), nor does it assume that people speak in complete, well-formed sentences that possess a uniquely linguistic kind of recursive structure. Furthermore, we do not accept that language is primarily 'for' either thinking (as per the current Minimalist Grammar version of formalist linguistic theory) or communication, construed as exchanging coded meanings (as per the functionalist approach). Rather, we assume that language constitutes a toolkit that effectively supports an individual in influencing the state and the behaviour of others (and perhaps also self; this notion is discussed, e.g.