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UNLIMITED COMBINATIONS. “The process of “word formation” enables a language to encode an essentially unlimited number of objects.” https://lnkd.in/d_bJcG9t View in LinkedIn

SMALL LEXICON KEY. “We model the probability of misunderstanding a signal and show that this limits the number of objects that can be described by a protolanguage. This “error limit” is not overcome by employing more sounds but by combining a small set of more easily distinguishable sounds into words.” https://lnkd.in/d_bJcG9t View in LinkedIn

MUDDY ORIGINS. “For many years the evolution of language has been seen as a disreputable topic, mired in fanciful ‘‘just so stories’’ about language origins.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

SALTATION. “The emergence of language was a defining moment in the evolution of modern humans. It was an innovation that changed radically the character of human society.” https://lnkd.in/d_bJcG9t View in LinkedIn

HOMOLOGY VS ANALOGY. “These new data tell a cautionary tale: we must beware of considering any human trait unique without a thorough search among animals. More importantly they show the value of both homology and analogy in understanding the human capacity for speech.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

ERRONEOUS PRESUMPTION. “Such a descended larynx was believed until recently to be uniquely human, and thus has been emphasized in many accounts of language evolution. New comparative data call this emphasis into question.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

SEED BLACK HOLES. “An SMBH is born first as a much smaller seed BH, which then grows by accreting matter and merging with other BHs. Numerous studies have been devoted to explaining how and when these seed BHs and their host galaxies form.” (SMBH = supermassive black hole; BH = black hole). https://lnkd.in/dHcpNrnR View in LinkedIn

THE DESCENDING LARYNX. “A key factor in human speech production is our unusual vocal tract: we have a descended larynx, hyoid and tongue root which enable us to produce a greater diversity of formant frequencies patterns, and thus of speech sounds, than would be possible otherwise.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

THE UNIVERSE AS A LABORATORY. “Luminous (optically selected) quasars at high redshift, thus offer the most direct constraint on the evolution of the first SMBHs and serve a unique laboratory to study the earliest phases of galaxy formation and evolution as well as the properties of the early Universe.” (SMBH = supermassive black hole). https://lnkd.in/dHcpNrnR View in LinkedIn

INTERWOVEN FUNCTIONALITY. “Teasing out the relative contributions of these various behavioral domains (including language) to prefrontal elaboration during evolution will likely be very difficult, in part because they almost surely all contributed as part of a complex adaptive system involving many aspects of human behavior.” https://lnkd.in/dvz_XvBp View in LinkedIn