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Article

Evolutionary Dynamics Do Not Motivate a Single-Mutant Theory of Human Language.

Scientific reports - 16 Jan 2020

de Boer Bart, Thompson Bill, Ravignani Andrea, Boeckx Cedric

Abstract excerpt

One of the most controversial hypotheses in cognitive science is the Chomskyan evolutionary conjecture that language arose instantaneously in humans through a single mutation. Here we analyze the evolutionary dynamics implied by this hypothesis, which has never been formalized before. The hypothesis supposes the emergence and fixation of a single mutant (capable of the syntactic operation Merge) during a narrow...

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Identifiers

PMID: 31949223
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-57235-8
PMCID: PMC6965110

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PubMed metadata and Literature Corpus relationships. Corpus snapshot updated 7 Sept 2026. Manifest publication-graph-cohort-2026-09-07.1.

Source receipt: pubmed, retrieved 7 Sept 2026.

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