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Words are not costly displays: Shortcomings of a testosterone-fuelled model of language evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2006

Chris Knight  and
Camilla Power
Chris Knight*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, University of East London, LondonE16 2RD, United Kingdomhttp://homepages.uel.ac.uk/C.Knight/
Camilla Power*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, University of East London, LondonE16 2RD, United Kingdomhttp://homepages.uel.ac.uk/C.Knight/
*
[email protected]
[email protected]
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Abstract:

Only by misconstruing the term performative are the authors able to argue that males surpass females in performative applications of language. Linguistic performatives are not costly displays of quality, and syntax cannot be explained as an outcome of behavioural competition between pubertal males. However, there is room for a model in which language co-evolves with the unique human life-history stage of adolescence.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , June 2006 , pp. 290 - 291
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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