The selective advantage of complex language

Abstract

The progressive evolution of the biological capacity to learn and use highly complex language is unlikely to be explained primarily by any subsistence or technological advantages that language offers. Rather, language probably served social purposes. In particular, two relationships could have driven selection in favor of increasingly complex language. First, in most or all societies, those who rise to positions of leadership tend to be recognized as having high languistic skills. Second, in the kinds of society in which language must be presumed to have evolved, leaders tend to raise more children to maturity than do other people. Together, these two relationships would give a long-term selective advantage to increasingly skillful speakers.