NOT A LANGUAGE GENE.

September 5, 2005 by 2 Comments

Geoff Pullum, back at Language Log after a move to Cambridge, Mass., has posted a long and detailed refutation of the myth that FOXP2 is the “language gene”; he links to “Alec MacAndrew’s authoritative survey of the issue” and provides his own acerbic commentary. Unfortunately, we all know that the press will pay no heed, myths being so much more fun than facts.

Comments

  1. Brian says
    September 6, 2005 at 1:48 am

    Re: Foxp2 not being a language gene.
    I disagree with Mr. Pullum and wonder why he would try to debunk a study done by
    British scientists?

  2. Ella says
    September 6, 2005 at 11:32 am

    I think a key point to this is not that the FOXP2 gene is unrelated to language, as it clearly is – in fact it is *a* language gene, simply evidently only one of many genes which enable us to hear, process, & produce language.
    And why shouldn’t he debunk British scientists? American scientists are too easy, it’s unsporting.

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