| Title |
Universal Grammar and Biological Variation: An EvoDevo Agenda for Comparative Biolinguistics
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Biological Theory, March 2014
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s13752-014-0164-0 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Antonio Benítez-Burraco, Cedric Boeckx |
| Abstract |
Recent advances in genetics and neurobiology have greatly increased the degree of variation that one finds in what is taken to provide the biological foundations of our species-specific linguistic capacities. In particular, this variation seems to cast doubt on the purportedly homogeneous nature of the language faculty traditionally captured by the concept of "Universal Grammar." In this article we discuss what this new source of diversity reveals about the biological reality underlying Universal Grammar. Our discussion leads us to support (1) certain hypotheses advanced in evolutionary developmental biology that argue for the existence of robust biological mechanisms capable of canalizing variation at different levels, and (2) a bottom-up perspective on comparative cognition. We conclude by sketching future directions for what we call "comparative biolinguistics," specifying which experimental directions may help us succeed in this new research avenue. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 12 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 3 | 25% |
| Italy | 2 | 17% |
| United States | 1 | 8% |
| Brazil | 1 | 8% |
| Netherlands | 1 | 8% |
| Spain | 1 | 8% |
| Unknown | 3 | 25% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 11 | 92% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 8% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 59 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 1 | 2% |
| Spain | 1 | 2% |
| Germany | 1 | 2% |
| Unknown | 56 | 95% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 14 | 24% |
| Student > Master | 10 | 17% |
| Professor | 7 | 12% |
| Researcher | 5 | 8% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 5 | 8% |
| Other | 10 | 17% |
| Unknown | 8 | 14% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 10 | 17% |
| Linguistics | 9 | 15% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 9 | 15% |
| Philosophy | 5 | 8% |
| Social Sciences | 5 | 8% |
| Other | 10 | 17% |
| Unknown | 11 | 19% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 8. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 04 December 2020.
All research outputs
#4,417,896
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Outputs from Biological Theory
#106
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Outputs of similar age
#41,928
of 224,828 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Biological Theory
#3
of 6 outputs
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