The Necessity of Syntax

[Sherman Wilcox]

On 12/9/02, Steve Long said:

>An evolutionary biologist would not claim structure is "motivated" by
>"functional needs." But I don't know of any remotely conventional biologist
>who would NOT claim that biological structure is shaped by function, i.e., by
>the success or lack of success the structure has in terms of survival.

I think it's important to be careful how we talk about this: "motivated by" and "shaped by" are ambiguous, as Östen has pointed out.

Not to mention that function itself is pretty slippery. The ribbing pattern on mollusk shells is probably a result of interference patterns in the growing shell, but a secondary effect is that the ribs can become functional (emergent function) when they act as anchors when mollusks burrow in the mud. The ribs are not motivated by functional need. They may or may not be shaped by function. But they certainly are functional.

I agree with Talmy in rejecting the "100% motivated or else functionalism is falsified" mantra. Random drift/variation surely occurs, and can persist, without being selected.

To me, what we need to talk about is selectionist as opposed to instructionist models. Darwinian evolution is selectionist. But selectionist models don't have to rely on natural selection. Neural Darwinisn (Gerald Edelman) is a somatic selection account of brain development and function; Edelman won the Nobel Prize for his selectionist model of the immune system.

William James even hinted at a selectionist model of cognitive function: "... conceptions, emotions, and active tendencies ... are originally produced in the shape of random images, fancies, accidental outbursts of spontaneous variation in the functional activity of the excessively unstable human brain, which the outer environment simply confirms or refutes, adopts or rejects, preserves or destroys -- selects, in short."

I take it that linguists could propose a selectionist account of language origins/evolution, as many of the current proposals do, and a selectionist account of language change -- as, if I understand correctly, Bill Croft is doing.

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Sherman Wilcox
Department of Linguistics
University of New Mexico