Explanation in Biolinguistics

For the last half-century, biolinguistics, the study of the biology of language, has focused on the classical “what” and “how” questions in biology: (1) What is knowledge of language?, (2) How does language develop in the child? and (3) How does language evolve in the species? The answers to questions (1)–(3) have in turn stimulated investigation into the deeper “why” question; viz., why are the principles of language what they are? (the basis for the “minimalist” program). The answers to all of these questions will provide insight into the “unification problem;” viz., how the study of language can be integrated with the rest of the natural sciences. We review some recent investigations into these questions.