语言——自然选择的一种适应

该文认为人类的语言能力是一种生物学意义上的适应，是自然选择的产物。人类的语言与自然界中其它复杂的生物学适应相类似，也具有特定的机能。语言的特定机能在于编码叙事性信息并与他人分享，这与人类认知活动中因果推理所具有的高度社会性特点相一致。两个新的研究领域，进化博弈理论和分子进化选择理论，都证实了语言是一种受到自然选择的进化适应

Language as an Adaptation by Natural Selection

This paper defends the theory that the human language faculty is a biological adaptation and, like other examples of complex adaptive design in the natural world, it is a product of natural selection. Language is designed to code propositional information for the purpose of sharing it with others, and thus fits with other features of the distinctive human "cognitive niche" including cause-and-effect thinking and hypersociality. Finally, the paper demonstrates that these and other evolutionary hypotheses about language as an adaptation have been supported by two new areas of research: evolutionary game theory, and tests for selection in molecular evolution.