Language in the genes: Where’s the evidence?

Evidence regarding the genetic bases of human language abilities comes from many sources, but none is as rich and reliable as the one that comes from infant speech perception studies. This contribution provides an overview of how research on infant speech perception informs the debate on the genetic basis of human language abilities. Specifically, this contribution reviews findings which document infants’ abilities to learn from pre- and postnatal experience, and findings which strongly suggest that humans possess language-specific abilities as part of their genetic makeup.