"Stephen Harris"  wrote in
news:bc8pft$2gbg$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org: 

 
> ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/Psycoloquy/2000.volume.11/
> psyc.00.11.001.language-sex-chromosomes.1.crow
> 
> 4. "The argument is sharpened by the case that the species is
> characterised by a function -- language -- that has features
> (arbitrariness of the association between the sign and what it
> signifies, de Saussure, 1916, and the "infinite" generativity of
> sentences, Chomsky, 1972) that are absent in other primates and
> probably were also absent in precursor hominid species (Bickerton,
> 1995). Evidence of linguistic ability (for example as demonstrated by
> the presence of representational capacity in rock art and other
> artefacts) goes back no more than 60,000 years (Bickerton, 1995; Noble
> & Davidson, 1996), and the facts of human syntactic ability require a
> set of component mechanisms (e.g., subcategorisation of verbs, and the
> use of grammatical and null elements) that function only as a whole
> and are unlikely to have evolved sequentially (Bickerton, 1995; see
> also Maynard-Smith & Szathmary, 1995). Although the human capacity for
> language must clearly have been built on prior communicative abilities
> ("proto-language") such abilities did not include the grammatical
> framework for generating and manipulating symbols that is the hallmark
> of the species. This framework is the obvious correlate of the
> innovative ability that appeared relatively suddenly in the
> archaeological record (see e.g., Mellars & Stringer, 1989). These
> considerations lead to the conclusion that language evolved as a
> result of a genetic change that introduced a new principle of brain
> function. According to the molecular evidence the transition to modern
> Homo sapiens occurred around 137,000 years ago (Stoneking et al,
> 1997). The obvious inference is that the genetic change and the
> transition relate to a single event, and that this was abrupt and
> surprisingly recent." 


The article itself notes that language must have been built on proto-
language. Since humans prior to modern humans were using tools and fire, 
walking upright, etc., it is certain that they had significant cultural 
transmission. The "obvious inference" is that they did have grammar, but 
it had to be taught. The transition to modern Homo sapiens would have 
been that grammar became genetically programmed rather than having to be 
culturally transmitted. 




> 
> II. DISCONTINUOUS TRANSITIONS IN EVOLUTION
> 
> 5. Such an event is consistent with the contrasting concept that
> species boundaries are marked by discontinuities, and that these
> discontinuities (described as "saltations") occur particularly in
> relation to development (see e.g., Goldschmidt, 1940; and Rensch,
> 1980).  Such a concept is compatible with the theory of punctuated
> equilibria (Eldredge & Gould, 1972) that while species characteristics
> remain stable over long periods of evolutionary time, the transitions
> between species represent periods of rapid and perhaps discontinuous
> change.


Saltations can not occur, for reasons which are obvious to anyone who 
knows anything about genetics. Rapid change can and has occurred. The 
overall development of the human brain from the "chimp-equivalent" brain 
is an example of one such rapid change. But the final transition from 
"Neanderthal level" to "Cro-Magnon level" does not seem
to be any more 
significant than any of the earlier transitions in the path from ape to 
human.   


> 
> DID HOMO SAPIENS SPECIATE ON THE Y CHROMOSOME?
> Target Article on Language-Sex-Chromosomes (author: Timothy J. Crow)
> 
>     ABSTRACT: It is hypothesised that the critical change (a
>     "saltation") in the transition from a precursor hominid to modern
>     Homo sapiens occurred in a gene for cerebral lateralisation
>     located on the Y chromosome in a block of sequences that had
>     earlier transposed from the X. Sexual selection acting upon an X-Y
>     homologous gene to determine the relative rates of development of
>     the hemispheres across the antero-posterior axis ("cerebral
>     torque") allowed language to evolve as a species-specific mate
>     recognition system. Human evolution may exemplify a general role
>     for sex chromosomal change in speciation events in sexually
>     reproducing organisms.
> 
> ### http://novan.com/the-mind.htm (Donald L. Hamilton)
> "According to "The Speciation of Modern Homo Sapiens,"
published last
> week by The British Academy, a male likely was the first to acquire a
> gene, called protocadherinXY, believed to play a crucial role in human
> capacity for language.
> 
> The book states that the gene emerged as a translocation, or change,
> of a segment on the Y chromosome, which is associated with men.

I am astounded to find out that all my conversations with my wife have 
been a figment of my imagination. Obviously (on further reading of your 
post which I have snipped) others are too.


 
Yours,

Bill Morse
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