Biolinguistics

/ˌbaɪoʊlɪŋˈɡwɪstɪks/ noun

Definition

The study of language as a biological system, including how the brain creates language, how it evolved, and the genetic basis of language abilities.

Etymology

From bio- 'life' plus linguistics. Noam Chomsky pioneered this field in the 1950s when he proposed that humans have an innate biological 'universal grammar' hard-wired into our brains.

Kelly Says

Biolinguistics discovered that humans have a 'language gene' (FOXP2) that chimpanzees don't quite have the right version of—suggesting why no other animal can talk like we do.

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