Lucas proposes that we wait for consensus about what questions
to ask, but I suggest that it is better to ask too many
questions than too few. If there are other prerequisites for
language than those I propose, let us ask about them as well.
Prudkov develops his own theory and makes only passing reference
to my target article. 2. The only alternative prerequisite that
Lucas suggests is mimesis. She cites Donald (1991) who, she
says, "suggests that mimesis, not imitation, was the essential
precursor to naming". As Donald describes mimesis, it was a
means by which behavior was coordinated, and it required
imitation. I do not see mimesis and imitation as mutually
exclusive alternatives, as Lucas apparently does, but as
different names for the same or, at least, overlapping concepts.
For Donald, "mimesis" covers more than just imitation, and if
the other aspects of mimesis were necessary for launching
language then by all means let us ask what selective pressures
encouraged them. That would hardly make it wrong t