Abstract: . . .  psycholinguistics Page 1 PLINX204 PSYCHOLINGUISTICS LANGUAGE ACQUISITION – 2006 - 3 Linguistic evidence (2) Species-specificity, Evolution, Categorical perception, the Language of Thought, the Modality neutrality of the Language Faculty. Basic reading: Hauser et al, 2002; Petitto, 2005. Subsidiary reading: Pinker & Jackendoff, 2005; Fitch et al, 2005. 1. Species-specificity: One of the traditional arguments for innateness (genetic determination) of part of the language faculty is its species-specificity. In general, species characteristics are uncontroversially genetically determined: that birds have feathers, that sharks are ovoviviparous, that dogs bark, are all a result of their genetic make-up. By parity of argumentation, that humans have language as a species characteristic is also taken to show genetic determination. 2. a. Is the human language faculty species-specific? b. If so, in what respects? c. If not, does/would . . .
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