Mimesis and the Executive Suite:missing links in language evolution, Merlin Donald

Brief Introduction

There is considerable disagreement about the nature of the deep neurocognitive systems that generate human language, and how they might have evolved. The main bone of contention is whether the underlying generator of human language is continuous with the machinery of the primate brain, or something completely new. There are two diametrically opposed schools of thought on this issue. The Cartesian school insists on a special status for language, and adopts what might be called a traditional noncontinuity stance. To Cartesians, language is a truly novel adaptation, irreducible and unique.