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
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Basic operations: Minimal syntax-semantics
TL;DR: It is claimed that concatenation is an instruction to conjoin monadic concepts, while labeling provides a vehicle for invoking thematic concepts, as indicated by the relevant labels.
Journal ArticleDOI
Convergence, Degeneracy, and Control
TL;DR: Both functional and structural brain changes associated with acquiring other languages are illustrated, the value of neuroimaging data in identifying individual differences and different phenotypes is discussed and the nature of language expertise is explained.
Journal ArticleDOI
The emergence of cerebral specialization for the human voice over the first months of life
TL;DR: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy is used to further investigate voice processing in awake 4–7-month-old infants and supports a growing body of evidence that the emergence of cerebral specialization for human voice sounds evolves over the first 6 months of age.
Book
Language, Space and Mind: The Conceptual Geometry of Linguistic Meaning
TL;DR: The Deictic Space Theory as discussed by the authors proposes a three-dimensional conceptual space that integrates attentional distance, temporal distance and epistemic distance, making it possible to unify a number of well known linguistic-conceptual phenomena, including tense, aspect, counterfactuals and deontic modality.
Journal ArticleDOI
A distinct cortical network for mathematical knowledge in the human brain
TL;DR: Results of two fMRI experiments in which professional mathematicians had to judge the truth value of mathematical and nonmathematical spoken statements support the existence of a distinct, non‐linguistic cortical network for mathematical knowledge in the human brain.
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.