� Abstract A category of stimuli of great importance for primates, humans in particular, is that formed by actions done by other individuals. If we want to survive, we must understand the actions of others. Furthermore, without action understanding, social organization is impossible. In the case of humans, there is another faculty that depends on the observation of others’ actions: imitation learning. Unlike most species, we are able to learn by imitation, and this faculty is at the basis of human culture. In this review we present data on a neurophysiological mechanism—the mirror-neuron mechanism—that appears to play a fundamental role in both action understanding and imitation. We describe first the functional properties of mirror neurons in monkeys. We review next the characteristics of the mirror-neuron system in humans. We stress, in particular, those properties specific to the human mirror-neuron system that might explain the human capacity to learn by imitation. We conclude by discussing the relationship between the mirror-neuron system and language.

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The mirror neuron system.

https://www.cogsci.ucsd.edu/~nunez/COGS160/Rizzolatti_Arbib_PS.pdf

Language within our grasp

Group size is a function of relative neocortical volume in nonhuman primates. Extrapolation from this regression equation yields a predicted group size for modern humans very similar to that of certain hunter-gatherer and traditional horticulturalist societies. Groups of similar size are also found in other large-scale forms of contemporary and historical society. Among primates, the cohesion of groups is maintained by social grooming; the time devoted to social grooming is linearly related to group size among the Old World monkeys and apes. To maintain the stability of the large groups characteristic of humans by grooming alone would place intolerable demands on time budgets. It is suggested that (1) the evolution of large groups in the human lineage depended on the development of a more efficient method for time-sharing the processes of social bonding and that (2) language uniquely fulfills this requirement. Data on the size of conversational and other small interacting groups of humans are in line with the predictions for the relative efficiency of conversation compared to grooming as a bonding process. Analysis of a sample of human conversations shows that about 60% of time is spent gossiping about relationships and personal experiences. It is suggested that language evolved to allow individuals to learn about the behavioural characteristics of other group members more rapidly than is possible by direct observation alone.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0140525X00032325

Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in humans

Speciation often involves the evolution of incompatible gene interactions that cause sterility or lethality in hybrids between populations. These so-called hybrid incompatibilities occur between two or more functionally divergent loci. We show that the nucleoporin 160kDa (Nup160) gene of the fruitfly Drosophila simulans is incompatible with one or more factors on the D. melanogaster X chromosome, causing hybrid lethality. Nup160 encodes a nuclear pore complex protein and shows evidence of adaptive evolution. Furthermore, the protein encoded by Nup160 directly interacts with that of another hybrid lethality gene, Nup96, indicating that at least two lethal hybrid incompatibility genes have evolved as byproducts of divergent coevolution among interacting components of the Drosophila nuclear pore complex.

Teaching Sign Language to a Chimpanzee

This bestselling textbook provides an engaging and user-friendly introduction to the study of language Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, Yule presents information in bite-sized sections, clearly explaining the major concepts in linguistics and all the key elements of language This seventh edition has been revised and updated throughout, with substantial changes to the chapters on phonetics and semantics, and forty new study questions To increase student engagement and to foster problem-solving and critical thinking skills, the book includes over twenty new tasks An expanded and revised online study guide provides students with further resources, including answers and tutorials for all tasks, while encouraging lively and proactive learning This is the most fundamental and easy-to-use introduction to the study of language

http://www3.uji.es/~ruiz/1003/Lects/Yule-Chap19.pdf

The Study of Language

Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf

It is approaching a half century since Bill Stokoe published his revolutionary monograph, Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf It is rare for a work of innovative scholarship to spark a social as well as an intellectual revolution, but that is just what Stokoe's 1960 paper did. And it is indicative both of Stokoe's genius and of his commitment that he did not simply publish his groundbreaking work and then sit back to watch the revolutions unfold. He actively promoted important changes in at least three areas of social and intellectual life. First, and perhaps most important, his work, that was ultimately generally accepted as showing the signing of deaf people to be linguistic, supported significant changes in the way deaf children are educated around the globe. Second, his work led to a general rethinking of what is fundamental about human language; and, third, it helped to reenergize the moribund field of language origin studies. This truly revolutionary paper has been reprinted at least twice, in revised and original versions, since its initial release in 1960, and now, five years after Bill's death, it is good to see it once again brought before the general public.

/pdf/sign-language-structure-an-outline-of-the-visual-56ugo3e67w.pdf

A dictionary of American sign language on linguistic principles

The designation "sign language" has been used for a wide variety of semi­ otic systems ranging from the expression of emotions in men and animals (24) to the transmission and reception of genuinely linguistic structures. Sign language is a misnomer, however, when such structures result from spoken language processing up to the point where gestured signs replace the vocal output. The kind of sign language research reviewed here contem­ plates human cultural systems in which not just the output signal but also the processes for forming words and sentences operate without any connec­ tion to speech or sound. Sign languages of this kind are used for interaction by members of deaf populations as spoken languages are used by those who can hear. Other sign languages may more or less completely and unambigu­ ously mediate general or special interaction (6, 7, 57, 87), but these are generally learned and used by persons already competent in some spoken language, and hence they differ from sign languages acquired as their native languages by persons who cannot hear speech and by children of deaf parents (82). Research reviewed here is primarily or entirely concerned with sign languages of deaf populations, and in what follows it is these languages that will be meant by the term "sign languages." Reasons for studying sign languages and the results of such research also show wide variety. Earliest to emerge was educational research: from 1880 when a congress of educators in Milan decided that deaf children should see and use no sign language in their educational experience, incredible as this may seem to those unacquainted with the rise of "oralism" (2, 25, 40). Recent research reveals the inevitable effect on children who cannot hear of depriving them of sign language (23); it also strongly indicates the use of bilingual strategies (16, 21). In another direction, sign language research has helped focus new consideration of the origins and evolution of language

Sign Language Structure

This book proposes a radical alternative to dominant views of the evolution of language, and in particular the origins of syntax. The authors argue that manual and vocal communication developed in parallel, and that the basic elements of syntax are intrinsic to gesture. They draw on evidence from areas such as primatology, anthropology, and linguistics, to present a groundbreaking account of the notion that language emerged through visible bodily action. They go on to examine the implications of their findings for linguistic theory and theories of the biological evolution of the capacity for language. Written in a clear and accessible style, Gesture and the Nature of Language will be indispensable reading for all those interested in the origins of language.

William C. Stokoe

Papers

Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf

Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf

A dictionary of American sign language on linguistic principles

Sign Language Structure

Gesture and the Nature of Language