We will examine research looking at whether the way language is transmitted and used can explain the origins and evolution of key design features of language.
Language is arguably the defining characteristic of our species, and the evolution of language is an area of intense interdisciplinary interest [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The term ‘language evolution’, however, has three common interpretations: biological evolution, language change, and the cultural emergence of linguistic structure (Figure 1). This review will focus on the third interpretation. We will examine research looking at whether the way language is transmitted and used can explain the origins and evolution of key design features of language. These are the features which mark language out as special when compared to the vast number of communication systems in the natural world, and enable us to communicate about an open-ended range of meanings.