Publication ｜Sophia Linguistica
Masanobu Sorida
Labeling is one of the essential components of the faculty of language. This paper explores
the evolutionary origin of labeling and argues that it originates from the capacity of
figure assignment employed by various perceptual systems. In section 2, the parallelisms
between labeling and figure assignment are observed. In particular, it is shown that
labeling by minimal search, proposed by Chomsky (2013), and figure assignment in the
visual system exhibit many similarities. Given that the faculty of language is a newer trait
than the faculties of perception, we are led to the conclusion that the former originates
from the latter. In section 3, some consequences of the above proposal for labeling theory
are considered. Specifically, it is proposed that, contrary to Chomsky’s (2013) proposal, a
structure constructed by two phrases, XP and YP, can be labeled either X or Y. Section 4
concludes the paper.
