| Is it an exaptation, a side effect of changes which were not at first tied to communicative behaviour? |
| One problem with this criticism is that it ignores exaptation, the adaptation of a trait originally developed for one function to some other function. |
| Here we have to turn to notions of exaptation, for language is a unique aptitude that doesn't seem to have emerged from protolanguage, and certainly did not do so directly. |
| Birds initially developed wings and feathers as a means of heat regulation. The use of wings for flight is an example of exaptation. |
| This causes exaptation to be rendered solely as an adaptationist concept. |
| Whether one prefers to call this a function or an exaptation is a terminological issue perhaps to be settled by one's taste for neologisms. |
