Journal ArticleDOI
The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?
TLDR
It is argued that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation and how current developments in linguistics can be profitably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience is suggested.Abstract:
We argue that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation. We suggest how current developments in linguistics can be profitably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience. We submit that a distinction should be made between the faculty of language in the broad sense (FLB)and in the narrow sense (FLN) . FLB includes a sensory-motor system, a conceptual-intentional system, and the computational mechanisms for recursion, providing the capacity to generate an infinite range of expressions from a finite set of elements. We hypothesize that FLN only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language. We further argue that FLN may have evolved for reasons other than language, hence comparative studies might look for evidence of such computations outside of the domain of communication (for example, number, navigation, and social relations).read more
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Complex vocal imitation during ontogeny in a bat
TL;DR: It is reported that pups of the bat Saccopteryx bilineata learn a complex vocalization through vocal imitation, indicating that the faculty of vocal imitation is more widespread than previously thought and emphasizing the importance of research on audiovocal communication in bats for a better understanding of the evolutionary origin of vocal imitate.
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Broca's area: a supramodal hierarchical processor?
TL;DR: It is suggested that an important computational role of Broca's area may be to process hierarchical structures in a wide range of functional domains.
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Brain embodiment of syntax and grammar: discrete combinatorial mechanisms spelt out in neuronal circuits.
TL;DR: Neuroscience and neurocomputational research offering perspectives on understanding abstract linguistic mechanisms in terms of neuronal circuits and their interactions therefore point programmatic new ways to future theory-guided experimental investigation of the brain basis of grammar.
Journal ArticleDOI
Neural correlates of artificial syntactic structure classification
TL;DR: The neural correlates of artificial syntactic classification is investigated using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging and the head of the caudate nucleus correlated positively with syntactic correctness on day 8 but not day 1, suggesting that this region contributes to an increase in cognitive processing fluency.
Journal ArticleDOI
Representation of Numerical and Sequential Patterns in Macaque and Human Brains
TL;DR: Using fMRI in untrained macaques and humans, a recently evolved circuit may endow humans with a unique ability for representing linguistic and non-linguistic sequences in a unified manner.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
Ann S. Ferebee,Noam Chomsky +1 more
TL;DR: Methodological preliminaries of generative grammars as theories of linguistic competence; theory of performance; organization of a generative grammar; justification of grammar; descriptive and explanatory theories; evaluation procedures; linguistic theory and language learning.
Book
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
TL;DR: Generative grammars as theories of linguistic competence as discussed by the authors have been used as a theory of performance for language learning. But they have not yet been applied to the problem of language modeling.
Book
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
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.
Book
The Minimalist Program
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."
Journal Article
The descent of man and selection in relation to sex: documento
TL;DR: Part I. Sexual Selection (continued): Secondary sexual characters of fishes, amphibians and reptiles, and secondarySexual characters of birds.