History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine Seminar "Is there a Gene for Language?"

Is there a Gene for Language?

There are many disparate models of language evolution. A large subset of
these models are guided by the assumption that language is unique to
humans. This assumption leads researchers to present elaborate selective
regimens suited to the production of such a unique complex trait. There
are however many elements considered key to language production in humans
present in other animals. For example, FoxP2 is a gene that is deeply
conserved and influences vocalization in several non-human animals. I
assess some recent work on FoxP2 from different biological approaches,
including medical genetics, population genetics and Evo/Devo. FoxP2 has
been dubbed the “language gene” by some researchers and this construal
gives support to those who want an account of language evolution as the
emergence of a complex trait via adaptation. I cast doubt on the
construal of FoxP2 as the language gene and pose problems for this type of
thinking about the evolution of language.