Languages and Genes: Reflections on Biolinguistics and the Nature–Nurture Question

We are concerned with the impact of rapid progress in genetics and cognitive neuroscience on linguists’ conceptions of the biological bases of language and on the overarching issue of nature and nurture in linguistics. The particular focus of our discussion is the recent claim (Dediu & Ladd 2007) that there is a causal relationship between genetic and linguistic diversities at the population level, involving two brain growth-related genes and linguistic tone. Our broader aim, however, is to consider the implications of such relationships — assuming that they actually exist — for those who are “seriously engaged in discovering the properties of grammar” and for those who are attempting to “provide explicit answers to [necessarily interdisciplinary] questions” about language as a biological phenomenon. We argue that broad biological findings and insights must eventually inform the work of those whose interests and activities in biolinguistics are covered by Boeckx & Grohmann’s weak sense of the term.