Evolution, brain, and the nature of language
TL;DR: It is shown that the unified nature of human language arises from a shared, species-specific computational ability that has identifiable correlates in the brain and has remained fixed since the origin of language approximately 100 thousand years ago.
About: This article is published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences.The article was published on 2013-02-01. It has received 410 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Origin of language.
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20 Apr 1907
TL;DR: For instance, when a dog sees another dog at a distance, it is often clear that he perceives that it is a dog in the abstract; for when he gets nearer his whole manner suddenly changes, if the other dog be a friend as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: ION, GENERAL CONCEPTIONS, SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS, MENTAL INDIVIDUALITY. It would be very difficult for any one with even much more knowledge than I possess, to determine how far animals exhibit any traces of these high mental powers. This difficulty arises from the impossibility of judging what passes through the mind of an animal; and again, the fact that writers differ to a great extent in the meaning which they attribute to the above terms, causes a further difficulty. If one may judge from various articles which have been published lately, the greatest stress seems to be laid on the supposed entire absence in animals of the power of abstraction, or of forming general concepts. But when a dog sees another dog at a distance, it is often clear that he perceives that it is a dog in the abstract; for when he gets nearer his whole manner suddenly changes, if the other dog be a friend. A recent writer remarks, that in all such cases it is a pure assumption to assert that the mental act is not essentially of the same nature in the animal as in man. If either refers what he perceives with his senses to a mental concept, then so do both. (44. Mr. Hookham, in a letter to Prof. Max Muller, in the 'Birmingham News,' May, 1873.) When I say to my terrier, in an eager voice (and I have made the trial many times), "Hi, hi, where is it?" she at once takes it as a sign that something is to be hunted, and generally first looks quickly all around, and then rushes into the nearest thicket, to scent for any game, but finding nothing, she looks up into any neighbouring tree for a squirrel. Now do not these actions clearly shew that she had in her mind a general idea or concept that some animal is to be discovered and hunted? It may be freely admitted that no animal is self-conscious, if by this term it is implied, that he reflects on such points, as whence he comes or whither he will go, or what is life and death, and so forth. But how can we feel sure that an old dog with an excellent memory and some power of imagination, as shewn by his dreams, never reflects on his past pleasures or pains in the chase? And this would be a form of self-consciousness. On the other hand, as Buchner (45. 'Conferences sur la Theorie Darwinienne,' French translat. 1869, p. 132.) has remarked, how little can the hardworked wife of a degraded Australian savage, who uses very few abstract words, and cannot count above four, exert her self-consciousness, or reflect on the nature of her own existence. It is generally admitted, that the higher animals possess memory, attention, association, and even some imagination and reason. If these powers, which differ much in different animals, are capable of improvement, there seems no great improbability in more complex faculties, such as the higher forms of abstraction, and selfconsciousness, etc., having been evolved through the development and combination of the simpler ones. It has been urged against the views here maintained that it is impossible to say at what point in the ascending scale animals become capable of abstraction, etc.; but who can say at what age this occurs in our young children? We see at least that such powers
1,464 citations
TL;DR: It is found that, during listening to connected speech, cortical activity of different timescales concurrently tracked the time course of abstract linguistic structures at different hierarchical levels, such as words, phrases and sentences.
Abstract: The most critical attribute of human language is its unbounded combinatorial nature: smaller elements can be combined into larger structures on the basis of a grammatical system, resulting in a hierarchy of linguistic units, such as words, phrases and sentences. Mentally parsing and representing such structures, however, poses challenges for speech comprehension. In speech, hierarchical linguistic structures do not have boundaries that are clearly defined by acoustic cues and must therefore be internally and incrementally constructed during comprehension. We found that, during listening to connected speech, cortical activity of different timescales concurrently tracked the time course of abstract linguistic structures at different hierarchical levels, such as words, phrases and sentences. Notably, the neural tracking of hierarchical linguistic structures was dissociated from the encoding of acoustic cues and from the predictability of incoming words. Our results indicate that a hierarchy of neural processing timescales underlies grammar-based internal construction of hierarchical linguistic structure.
749 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that, to deal with this “Now-or-Never” bottleneck, the brain must compress and recode linguistic input as rapidly as possible, which implies that language acquisition is learning to process, rather than inducing, a grammar.
Abstract: Memory is fleeting. New material rapidly obliterates previous material. How, then, can the brain deal successfully with the continual deluge of linguistic input? We argue that, to deal with this "Now-or-Never" bottleneck, the brain must compress and recode linguistic input as rapidly as possible. This observation has strong implications for the nature of language processing: (1) the language system must "eagerly" recode and compress linguistic input; (2) as the bottleneck recurs at each new representational level, the language system must build a multilevel linguistic representation; and (3) the language system must deploy all available information predictively to ensure that local linguistic ambiguities are dealt with "Right-First-Time"; once the original input is lost, there is no way for the language system to recover. This is "Chunk-and-Pass" processing. Similarly, language learning must also occur in the here and now, which implies that language acquisition is learning to process, rather than inducing, a grammar. Moreover, this perspective provides a cognitive foundation for grammaticalization and other aspects of language change. Chunk-and-Pass processing also helps explain a variety of core properties of language, including its multilevel representational structure and duality of patterning. This approach promises to create a direct relationship between psycholinguistics and linguistic theory. More generally, we outline a framework within which to integrate often disconnected inquiries into language processing, language acquisition, and language change and evolution.
439 citations
Cites background from "Evolution, brain, and the nature of..."
...…between language evolution and language change: Language evolution is just the result of language change over a long timescale (see also Heine & Kuteva 2007), obviating the need for separate theories of language evolution and change (e.g., Berwick et al. 2013; Hauser et al. 2002; Pinker 1994).18...
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TL;DR: This year is the 50th anniversary of Tinbergen's article 'On aims and methods of ethology', where he first outlined the four 'major problems of biology', and it would seem a suitable opportunity to reflect on the four questions and evaluate the scientific work that they encourage.
Abstract: This year is the 50th anniversary of Tinbergen’s (1963) article ‘On aims and methods of ethology’, where he first outlined the four ‘major problems of biology’. The classification of the four problems, or questions, is one of Tinbergen’s most enduring legacies, and it remains as valuable today as 50 years ago in highlighting the value of a comprehensive, multifaceted understanding of a characteristic, with answers to each question providing complementary insights. Nonetheless, much has changed in the intervening years, and new data call for a more nuanced application of Tinbergen’s framework. The anniversary would seem a suitable opportunity to reflect on the four questions and evaluate the scientific work that they encourage. Origins of Tinbergen’s questions
307 citations
TL;DR: It is argued here that recognizably modern language is likely an ancient feature of the authors' genus pre-dating at least the common ancestor of modern humans and Neandertals about half a million years ago, and argues against a saltationist scenario for the evolution of language, and toward a gradual process of culture-gene co-evolution extending to the present day.
Abstract: It is usually assumed that modern language is a recent phenomenon, coinciding with the emergence of modern humans themselves. Many assume as well that this is the result of a single, sudden mutation giving rise to the full "modern package." However, we argue here that recognizably modern language is likely an ancient feature of our genus pre-dating at least the common ancestor of modern humans and Neandertals about half a million years ago. To this end, we adduce a broad range of evidence from linguistics, genetics, paleontology, and archaeology clearly suggesting that Neandertals shared with us something like modern speech and language. This reassessment of the antiquity of modern language, from the usually quoted 50,000-100,000 years to half a million years, has profound consequences for our understanding of our own evolution in general and especially for the sciences of speech and language. As such, it argues against a saltationist scenario for the evolution of language, and toward a gradual process of culture-gene co-evolution extending to the present day. Another consequence is that the present-day linguistic diversity might better reflect the properties of the design space for language and not just the vagaries of history, and could also contain traces of the languages spoken by other human forms such as the Neandertals.
228 citations
Cites background from "Evolution, brain, and the nature of..."
...Several proposals about language origins make the assumption that modern language is relatively recent, arising circa 50–100,000 years ago (e.g., Bickerton, 1990, 2002; Mithen, 2005; Chomsky, 2010, 2012; Berwick et al., 2013)....
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References
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Book•
24 Feb 1871
TL;DR: In this paper, secondary sexual characters of fishes, amphibians and reptiles are presented. But the authors focus on the secondary sexual characteristics of fishes and amphibians rather than the primary sexual characters.
Abstract: Part II. Sexual Selection (continued): 12. Secondary sexual characters of fishes, amphibians and reptiles 13. Secondary sexual characters of birds 14. Birds (continued) 15. Birds (continued) 16. Birds (concluded) 17. Secondary sexual characters of mammals 18. Secondary sexual characters of mammals (continued) 19. Secondary sexual characters of man 20. Secondary sexual characters of man (continued) 21. General summary and conclusion Index.
11,302 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1992
TL;DR: This twentieth-anniversary edition reissues Noam Chomsky's classic work The Minimalist Program with a new preface by the author, which emphasizes that the minimalist approach developed in the book and in subsequent work "is a program, not a theory."
Abstract: A classic work that situates linguistic theory in the broader cognitive sciences, formulating and developing the minimalist program. In his foundational book, The Minimalist Program, published in 1995, Noam Chomsky offered a significant contribution to the generative tradition in linguistics. This twentieth-anniversary edition reissues this classic work with a new preface by the author. In four essays, Chomsky attempts to situate linguistic theory in the broader cognitive sciences, with the essays formulating and progressively developing the minimalist approach to linguistic theory. Building on the theory of principles and parameters and, in particular, on principles of economy of derivation and representation, the minimalist framework takes Universal Grammar as providing a unique computational system, with derivations driven by morphological properties, to which the syntactic variation of languages is also restricted. Within this theoretical framework, linguistic expressions are generated by optimally efficient derivations that must satisfy the conditions that hold on interface levels, the only levels of linguistic representation. The interface levels provide instructions to two types of performance systems, articulatory-perceptual and conceptual-intentional. All syntactic conditions, then, express properties of these interface levels, reflecting the interpretive requirements of language and keeping to very restricted conceptual resources. In the preface to this edition, Chomsky emphasizes that the minimalist approach developed in the book and in subsequent work "is a program, not a theory." With this book, Chomsky built on pursuits from the earliest days of generative grammar to formulate a new research program that had far-reaching implications for the field.
9,104 citations
TL;DR: The Descent of Man, and Selection in relation to Sex as mentioned in this paper, by Charles Darwin, &c. In two volumes. Pp. 428, 475, as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: I. IF Mr. Darwin had closed his rich series of contributions to Science by the publication of the “Origin of Species,“he would have made an epoch in Natural History like that which Socrates made in philosophy, or Harvey in medicine. The theory identified with his name has stimulated ethnological and anatomical inquiries in every direction; it has been largely adopted and followed out by naturalists in this country and America, but most of all in the great work-room of modern science, whence a complete literature on “Darwinismus“has sprung up, and there disciples have appeared who stand in the same relation to their master as Muntzer and the Anabaptists did to Luther. Like most great advances in knowledge, the theory of Evolution found everything ripe for it. This is shown by the well-known fact that Mr. Wallace arrived at the same conclusion as to the origin of species while working in the Eastern Archipelago, and scarcely less so by the manner in which the theory has been worked out by men so distinguished as Mr. Herbert Spencer and Prof. Haeckel. But it was known when the “Origin of Species “was published, that instead of being the mere brilliant hypothesis of a man of genius, of which the proofs were to be furnished and the fruits gathered in by his successors, it was really only a summary of opinions based upon the most extensive and long-continued researches. Its author did not simply open a new province for future travellers to explore, he had already surveyed it himself, and the present volumes show him still at the head of his followers. They are written in a more popular style than those on "Animals and Plants under Domestication,“as they deal with subjects of more general interest; but all the great qualities of industry and accuracy in research, of fertility in framing hypotheses, and of impartiality in judgment, are as apparent in this as in Mr. Darwin's previous works. To one who bears in mind the too frequent tone of the controversies these works have excited, the turgid rhetoric and ignorant presumption of those "who are not of his school -or any school,“and the still more lamentable bad taste which mars the writings of Vogt and even occasionally of Haeckel, it is very admirable to see the calmness and moderation (for which philosophical would be too low an epithet) with which the author handles his subject. If prejudice can be conciliated, it will surely be by a book like this. The Descent of Man, and Selection in relation to Sex. By Charles Darwin, &c. In two volumes. Pp. 428, 475. (Murray, 1871.)
4,740 citations
TL;DR: A dual-stream model of speech processing is outlined that assumes that the ventral stream is largely bilaterally organized — although there are important computational differences between the left- and right-hemisphere systems — and that the dorsal stream is strongly left- Hemisphere dominant.
Abstract: Despite decades of research, the functional neuroanatomy of speech processing has been difficult to characterize. A major impediment to progress may have been the failure to consider task effects when mapping speech-related processing systems. We outline a dual-stream model of speech processing that remedies this situation. In this model, a ventral stream processes speech signals for comprehension, and a dorsal stream maps acoustic speech signals to frontal lobe articulatory networks. The model assumes that the ventral stream is largely bilaterally organized--although there are important computational differences between the left- and right-hemisphere systems--and that the dorsal stream is strongly left-hemisphere dominant.
4,234 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed 120 functional neuroimaging studies focusing on semantic processing and identified reliable areas of activation in these studies using the activation likelihood estimate (ALE) technique, which formed a distinct, left-lateralized network comprised of 7 regions: posterior inferior parietal lobe, middle temporal gyrus, fusiform and parahippocampal gyri, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus and posterior cingulate gyrus.
Abstract: Semantic memory refers to knowledge about people, objects, actions, relations, self, and culture acquired through experience. The neural systems that store and retrieve this information have been studied for many years, but a consensus regarding their identity has not been reached. Using strict inclusion criteria, we analyzed 120 functional neuroimaging studies focusing on semantic processing. Reliable areas of activation in these studies were identified using the activation likelihood estimate (ALE) technique. These activations formed a distinct, left-lateralized network comprised of 7 regions: posterior inferior parietal lobe, middle temporal gyrus, fusiform and parahippocampal gyri, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and posterior cingulate gyrus. Secondary analyses showed specific subregions of this network associated with knowledge of actions, manipulable artifacts, abstract concepts, and concrete concepts. The cortical regions involved in semantic processing can be grouped into 3 broad categories: posterior multimodal and heteromodal association cortex, heteromodal prefrontal cortex, and medial limbic regions. The expansion of these regions in the human relative to the nonhuman primate brain may explain uniquely human capacities to use language productively, plan, solve problems, and create cultural and technological artifacts, all of which depend on the fluid and efficient retrieval and manipulation of semantic knowledge.
3,283 citations