ABSTRACT
Language is puzzling. On the one hand, there are compelling reasons to believe that the possession of language by humans has deep biological roots. We are the only species that has a communication system with the complexity and richness of language. There are cases of nonhuman primates who can be taught (sometimes only with heroic effort) some aspects of human language, but their performance comes nowhere close to that of a 6-year-old child. Second, although languages differ, there are also striking similarities across widely divergent cultures. Finally, there are significant similarities in the patterns of language acquisition across very different linguistic communities. These (and other considerations as well) all suggest that species-specific biological factors play a critical role in the ability of humans to acquire and process language.
