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Language Comprehension

Language Comprehension PDF Author: Angela D. Friederici
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642599672
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Book Description
The second edition of the book on language comprehension in honor of Pim Levelt's sixtieth birthday has been released before he turns sixty-one. Some things move faster than the years of age. This seems to be especially true for advances in science. Therefore, the present edition entails changes in some of the chapters and incorporates an update of the current literature. I would like to thank all contributors for their cooperation in making a second edition possible such a short time after the completion of the first one. Angela D. Friederici Leipzig, November 23, 1998. Preface to the first edition Language comprehension and production is a uniquely human capability. We know little about the evolution of language as a human trait, possibly because our direct ancestors lived several million years ago. This fact certainly impedes the desirable advances in the biological basis of any theory of language evolution. Our knowledge about language as an existing species-specific biological sys tem, however, has advanced dramatically over the last two decades. New experi mental techniques have allowed the investigation of language and language use within the methodological framework of the natural sciences. The present book provides an overview of the experimental research in the area of language com prehension in particular.

Language Comprehension

Language Comprehension PDF Author: Angela D. Friederici
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642599672
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Book Description
The second edition of the book on language comprehension in honor of Pim Levelt's sixtieth birthday has been released before he turns sixty-one. Some things move faster than the years of age. This seems to be especially true for advances in science. Therefore, the present edition entails changes in some of the chapters and incorporates an update of the current literature. I would like to thank all contributors for their cooperation in making a second edition possible such a short time after the completion of the first one. Angela D. Friederici Leipzig, November 23, 1998. Preface to the first edition Language comprehension and production is a uniquely human capability. We know little about the evolution of language as a human trait, possibly because our direct ancestors lived several million years ago. This fact certainly impedes the desirable advances in the biological basis of any theory of language evolution. Our knowledge about language as an existing species-specific biological sys tem, however, has advanced dramatically over the last two decades. New experi mental techniques have allowed the investigation of language and language use within the methodological framework of the natural sciences. The present book provides an overview of the experimental research in the area of language com prehension in particular.

Biological Perspectives on Language

Biological Perspectives on Language PDF Author: David Caplan
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262031011
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 436

Book Description
Profoundly influenced by the analyses, of contemporary linguistics, these original contributions bring a number of different views to bear on important issues in a controversial area of study. The linguistic structures and language-related processes the book deals with are for the most part central (syntactic structures, phonological representations, semantic readings) rather than peripheral (acousticphonetic structures and the perception and production of these structures) aspects of language. Each section contains a summarizing introduction. Section I takes up issues at the interface of linguistics and neurology: The Concept of a Mental Organ for Language; Neural Mechanisms, Aphasia, and Theories of Language; Brain-based and Non-brain-based Models of Language; Vocal Learning and Its Relation to Replaceable Synapses and Neurons. Section II presents linguistic and psycholinguistic issues: Aspects of Infant Competence and the Acquisition of Language; the Linguistic Analysis of Aphasic Syndromes; the Clinical Description of Aphasia (Linguistic Aspects); The Psycholinguistic Interpretation of Aphasias; The Organization of Processing Structure for Language Production; and The Neuropsychology of Bilingualism. Section III deals with neural issues: Where is the Speech Area and Who has Seen It? Determinants of Recovery from Aphasia; Anatomy of Language; Lessons from Comparative Anatomy; Event Related Potentials and Language; Neural Models and Very Little About Language. David Caplan, M.D. edited Biological Studies of Mental Processes(MIT Press 1980), and is a member of the editorial staff of two prestigious journals, Cognition and Brain & Behavorial Sciences, He works at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Andreacute; Roch Lecours is Professor of Neurology and Allan Smith Professor of Physiology, both at the University of Montreal. The book is in the series, Studies in Neuropsychology and Neurolinguistics.

Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax

Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax PDF Author: Derek Bickerton
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262549123
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 491

Book Description
Interdisciplinary perspectives on the evolutionary and biological roots of syntax, describing current research on syntax in fields ranging from linguistics to neurology. Syntax is arguably the most human-specific aspect of language. Despite the proto-linguistic capacities of some animals, syntax appears to be the last major evolutionary transition in humans that has some genetic basis. Yet what are the elements to a scenario that can explain such a transition? In this book, experts from linguistics, neurology and neurobiology, cognitive psychology, ecology and evolutionary biology, and computer modeling address this question. Unlike most previous work on the evolution of language, Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax follows through on a growing consensus among researchers that language can be profitably separated into a number of related and interacting but largely autonomous functions, each of which may have a distinguishable evolutionary history and neurological base. The contributors argue that syntax is such a function.The book describes the current state of research on syntax in different fields, with special emphasis on areas in which the findings of particular disciplines might shed light on problems faced by other disciplines. It defines areas where consensus has been established with regard to the nature, infrastructure, and evolution of the syntax of natural languages; summarizes and evaluates contrasting approaches in areas that remain controversial; and suggests lines for future research to resolve at least some of these disputed issues. Contributors Andrea Baronchelli, Derek Bickerton, Dorothy V. M. Bishop, Denis Bouchard, Robert Boyd, Jens Brauer, Ted Briscoe, David Caplan, Nick Chater, Morten H. Christiansen, Terrence W.Deacon, Francesco d'Errico, Anna Fedor, Julia Fischer, Angela D. Friederici, Tom Givón, Thomas Griffiths, Balázs Gulyás, Peter Hagoort, Austin Hilliard, James R. Hurford, Péter Ittzés, Gerhard Jäger, Herbert Jäger, Edith Kaan, Simon Kirby, Natalia L. Komarova, Tatjana Nazir, Frederick Newmeyer, Kazuo Okanoya, Csaba Plèh, Peter J. Richerson, Luigi Rizzi, Wolf Singer, Mark Steedman, Luc Steels, Szabolcs Számadó, Eörs Szathmáry, Maggie Tallerman, Jochen Triesch, Stephanie Ann White

Language, Biology and Cognition

Language, Biology and Cognition PDF Author: Prakash Mondal
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9783030237172
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
This book examines the relationship between human language and biology in order to determine whether the biological foundations of language can offer deep insights into the nature and form of language and linguistic cognition. Challenging the assumption in biolinguistics and neurolinguistics that natural language and linguistic cognition can be reconciled with neurobiology, the author argues that reducing representation to cognitive systems and cognitive systems to neural populations is reductive, leading to inferences about the cognitive basis of linguistic performance based on assuming (false) dependencies. Instead, he finds that biological implementations of cognitive rather than the biological structures themselves, are the driver behind linguistic structures. In particular, this book argues that the biological roots of language are useful only for an understanding of the emergence of linguistic capacity as a whole, but ultimately irrelevant to understanding the character of language. Offering an antidote to the current thinking embracing ‘biologism’ in linguistic sciences, it will be of interest to readers in linguistics, the cognitive and brain sciences, and the points at which these disciplines converge with the computer sciences.

The Biology of Language

The Biology of Language PDF Author: Stanis?aw Puppel
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 902722143X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 311

Book Description
This volume brings together 15 papers on the evolution and origin of language. The authors approach the subject from various angles, exploring biological, cultural, psychological and linguistic factors. A wide variety of topics is discussed, such as animal communication, language acquisition, the essentialist-evolutionist debate, and genetic classification.

The Biolinguistic Enterprise

The Biolinguistic Enterprise PDF Author: Anna Maria Di Sciullo
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199553270
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 576

Book Description
This book, by leading scholars, represents some of the main work in progress in biolinguistics. It offers fresh perspectives on language evolution and variation, new developments in theoretical linguistics, and insights on the relations between variation in language and variation in biology. The authors address the Darwinian questions on the origin and evolution of language from a minimalist perspective, and provide elegant solutions to the evolutionary gap between human language and communication in all other organisms. They consider language variation in the context of current biological approaches to species diversity - the 'evo-devo revolution' - which bring to light deep homologies between organisms. In dispensing with the classical notion of syntactic parameters, the authors argue that language variation, like biodiversity, is the result of experience and thus not a part of the language faculty in the narrow sense. They also examine the nature of this core language faculty, the primary categories with which it is concerned, the operations it performs, the syntactic constraints it poses on semantic interpretation and the role of phases in bridging the gap between brain and syntax. Written in language accessible to a wide audience, The Biolinguistic Enterprise will appeal to scholars and students of linguistics, cognitive science, biology, and natural language processing.

Biolinguistics

Biolinguistics PDF Author: Lyle Jenkins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521003919
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
Argues that biology plays a more central role in language acquisition than teaching or learning.

Language, from a Biological Point of View

Language, from a Biological Point of View PDF Author: Cedric Boeckx
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 144383842X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
The present volume offers a collection of essays covering a broad range of areas where currently a rapprochement between linguistics and biology is actively being sought. Following a certain tradition, we call this attempt at a synthesis “biolinguistics.” The nine chapters (grouped into three parts: Language and Cognition, Language and the Brain, and Language and the Species) offer a comprehensive overview of issues at the forefront of biolinguistic research, such as language structure; language development; linguistic change and variation; language disorders and language processing; the cognitive, neural and genetic basis of linguistic knowledge; or the evolution of the Faculty of Language. Each contribution highlights exciting prospects for the field, but they also point to significant obstacles along the way. The main conclusion is that the age of theoretical exclusivity in Linguistics, much like the age of theoretical specificity, will have to end if interdisciplinarity is to reign and if biolinguistics is to flourish.

Language: A Biological Model

Language: A Biological Model PDF Author: Ruth Garrett Millikan
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 0191536431
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Book Description
Guiding the work of most linguists and philosophers of language today is the assumption that language is governed by prescriptive normative rules. Many believe that it is of the essence of thought itself to follow rules, rules of inference determining the intentional contents of our concepts, and that these rules originate as internalized rules of language. However, exactly what it is for there to be such things as normative rules of language remains distressingly unclear. From what source do these norms flow? What sanctions enforce them? What happens, exactly, if you don't follow the rules? How do children learn the rules? Ruth Millikan presents a radicallly different way of viewing the partial regularities that language displays, the norms and conventions of language. The central norms applying to language, like those norms of function and behavior that account for the survival and proliferation of biological traits, are non-evaluative norms. Specific linguistic forms survive and are reproduced together with co-operative hearer responses because, in a critical mass of cases, these patterns of production and response benefit both speakers and hearers. Conformity is needed only often enough to ensure that the co-operative use constituting the norm - the convention - continues to be copied and hence continues to characterize some interactions of some speaker-hearer pairs. What needs to be reproduced for discursive language forms to survive, it turns out, is not specific conceptual roles but only satisfaction conditions coupled to essential elements of hearer responses. An uncompromising rejection of conceptual analysis as a tool in philosophy results. At the same time the distinction between the propositional content and the force of a linguistic utterance comes into very sharp focus, force emerging as essential to the creation of content rather than as something added to content. The distinction between illocutionary and perlocutionary force, the distinction between linguistic meaning and speaker meaning, and the semantics/pragmatics distinction are each illuminated in new and crisper ways. On the model proposed, neither the intentionality of thought nor the intentionality of language is derived from the other. Processes involved in understanding language are not Gricean but more like direct perception of the world as mediated, for example, through the natural signs contained in the structured light that allows vision. There are also startling implications for pragmatics, and for how children learn language.

Biological and Behavioral Determinants of Language Development

Biological and Behavioral Determinants of Language Development PDF Author: Norman A. Krasnegor
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1317783891
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 545

Book Description
This book presents a current, interdisciplinary perspective on language requisites from both a biological/comparative perspective and from a developmental/learning perspective. Perspectives regarding language and language acquisition are advanced by scientists of various backgrounds -- speech, hearing, developmental psychology, comparative psychology, and language intervention. This unique volume searches for a rational interface between findings and perspectives generated by language studies with humans and with chimpanzees. Intended to render a reconsideration as to the essence of language and the requisites to its acquisition, it also provides readers with perspectives defined by various revisionists who hold that language might be other than the consequence of a mutation unique to humans and might, fundamentally, not be limited to speech.