Darwin’s theory predicts that linguistic behavior gradually evolved out of animal forms of communication. However, this prediction is confronted by the conceptual problem that there is an essential difference between signaling and linguistic behavior: using words is a normative practice. It is argued that we can resolve this problem if we note that language evolution is the outcome of an evolutionary transition, and observe that the use of words evolves during ontogenesis out of babbling. It is discussed that language evolved (...) as the result of an expansion of the vocalizing powers of our ancestors. This involved an increase in the volitional control of our speech apparatus, but also the evolution of socially guided learning. It resulted in unique human abilities, namely doing things with words and later reasoning and giving reasons. (shrink)

The Language of Thought Hypothesis is often taken to have the fatal flaw that it generates an explanatory regress. The language of thought is invoked to explain certain features of natural language (e.g., that it is learned, understood, and is meaningful), but, according to the regress argument, the language of thought itself has these same features and hence no explanatory progress has been made. We argue that such arguments rely on the tacit assumption that the entire motivation for the language (...) of thought consists in explaining the explanandum that allegedly generates the regress. But this tacit assumption is simply false. The Language of Thought Hypothesis is a cogent view and one with considerable explanatory advantages. (shrink)

La recherche en acquisition du vocabulaire en L2 a tendance à investiguer les connaissances lexicales que les apprenants ont stockées en mémoire ; certains spécialistes considèrent que l’accès à ces connaissances constitue un facteur déterminant de la compétence communicative. Des francophones apprenant l’anglais pourraient accéder de façon efficace à la forme écrite des mots anglais, puisqu’une grande partie du vocabulaire anglais est dérivée du français. Les différences des systèmes phonologiques des deux langues rendraient le traitement de ces mêmes mots plus (...) problématique en mode oral. L’expérience décrite ici – qui est basée sur la tâche de décision lexicale –compare l’accès à des mots anglais par un groupe d’apprenants francophones aux résultats pour un groupe d’anglophones. La performance des francophones a varié de façon significative, selon le mode de présentation des stimuli. (shrink)