Merge and Labeling as Descent with Modification of Categorization: A Neo-Lennebergian Approach

Abstract

[I]t is of recent evolutionary vintage. A common assumption is that language arose in humans in roughly the last 50,000–100,000 years. This is very rapid in evolutionary terms. I suggest the following picture: FL is the product of (at most) one (or two) evolutionary innovations which, when combined with cognitive resources available before the changes that led to language, delivers FL. (Hornstein 2009: 4)