Language evolution and an emergent property

Much debate has been stimulated by the recent hypothesis that human language consists of a faculty that is shared with non-human animals (faculty of language in a broad sense; FLB) and a faculty that is specific to human language (faculty of language in a narrow sense; FLN). This hypothesis has encouraged a tendency to emphasize one component of FLN: the cognitive operation of recursion. In consequence, non-syntactical, yet unique, aspects of human language have been neglected. One of these properties consists of vocal learning that enables an abundance of learned syllables. I suggest that FLN is not an independent faculty, but an ‘emergent’ property, arising from interactions between several other non-syntactical subfaculties of FLB, including vocal learning ability.