What we talk about when we talk about biolinguistics. Martins, P. T. & Boeckx, C. submitted. abstract bibtex The study of the biological foundations of language is sometimes called \textscbiolinguistics. This particular term finds its historical origins in the 1950s, and for various reasons it has also gained considerable traction in recent years. While its increasing use apparently signals an equally increasing interest in biology, apart from a few exceptions not much is added to and beyond standard linguistic theorizing by those linguists who use it, resulting in a complex and confusing literature. This state of affairs has led, on the one hand, to the perpetuation of biologically implausible proposals that have pervaded linguistics for decades, and to ill-placed criticism on the progress and even the very legitimacy of a biologically-informed study of language, on the other. By reviewing different ways in which research under the biolinguistics moniker has been carried out, as well as some common criticisms, we hope to dispel some misconceptions about what constitutes a biolinguistic approach, as well as point out what we contend is real progress in the study of the biological bases and evolution of the human language faculty, to which the term is better and rightly applied.
@ARTICLE{martinsboeckx15,
Author={Martins, Pedro Tiago and Boeckx, Cedroc},
Title={What we talk about when we talk about biolinguistics},
Year={submitted},
Abstract={The study of the biological foundations of language is sometimes called \textsc{biolinguistics}. This particular term finds its historical origins in the 1950s, and for various reasons it has also gained considerable traction in recent years. While its increasing use apparently signals an equally increasing interest in biology, apart from a few exceptions not much is added to and beyond standard linguistic theorizing by those linguists who use it, resulting in a complex and confusing literature. This state of affairs has led, on the one hand, to the perpetuation of biologically implausible proposals that have pervaded linguistics for decades, and to ill-placed criticism on the progress and even the very legitimacy of a biologically-informed study of language, on the other. By reviewing different ways in which research under the biolinguistics moniker has been carried out, as well as some common criticisms, we hope to dispel some misconceptions about what constitutes a biolinguistic approach, as well as point out what we contend is real progress in the study of the biological bases and evolution of the human language faculty, to which the term is better and rightly applied.}
}
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