Language's place in nature

Human language has enabled our species to exchange information and to formu late ideas; understanding how human linguistic faculties evolved is one of the great challenges in evolutionary theory. Studies of the evolution of hu man language can be broadly separated into two types of approaches: those t hat consider the (e.g. phylogenetic) relationships between existing languag es and their common ancestors; and those that try to understand the evoluti on of the human language capacity itself. For the latter case, Martin Nowak and co-workers have now shown that evolutionary game theory provides a fra mework in which the evolution of linguistic elements, such as word formatio n and syntax, can be investigated. These recent studies show that natural s election will favour the evolution of such 'human' linguistic elements from simple animal communication if they enable more reliable exchange of relev ant, that is fitness-enhancing, information.