In the field of language evolution, a number of literatures attempt to capture the possible profile of the evolution by using the Baldwin effect. Oddly, however, in these literatures exactly what mechanism of the Baldwin effect is working in the evolution is often not investigated. Authors of these literatures seem to be too much impressed by the current synergy of innate and learnt linguistic knowledge claimed by generativists. In the field of evolutionary biology and its related fields, however, it is still highly controversial what the possible mechanism of the effect is. Skepticisms are common in the debates of the Baldwin effect. Most of such skepticisms are aimed for its possible mechanisms, especially if the target trait is behavioural. The basic points of those debates should be counted seriously in any theory of language evolution.

Recently Deacon (1997) reports that a new type of Baldwin mechanism is possible and highly probable. This is often called as 'niche construction.' In my presentation, a couple of candidates of Baldwin mechanism will be argued, and then this particular type of the mechanism will be examined in the context of language evolution.