Minimal Computation and the Architecture of Language

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam Chomsky
Keyword(s):  
Basic Property ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Structural Diversity ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Internal Structures ◽  
The Brain

AbstractThe article argues that humans are endowed with an inborn language faculty. The ‘Basic Property’ of language is defined as a finitely-specified procedure represented in the brain, which generates a discrete infinity of hierarchically structured expressions. These unordered structures are linked to two interfaces: (i) the sensorimotor interface and (ii) the conceptual-intentional interface. The sensorimotor interface externalizes and linearizes internal structures, usually in the sound modality. Externalization and linearization account for the structural diversity of the world’s languages. Human language did not evolve from simpler communication systems. The available evidence suggests that language is primarily an instrument of thought, not of communication.

Narrative Representation Theory: Identifying the human language with superstructure

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 648-672
Author(s):  
Hirokuni Masuda
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Representation Theory ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Computational System ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
The Right ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

Narrative Representation Theory (NRT), an evolved framework of Verse Analysis, has come into existence with the mission of explaining the operation of macro-systemic structure that could be hardwired in the brain. Based on the analyses of creoles or archetypal human languages, the theory puts forward the premise stating that the fundamental design of the human language faculty possesses the computational system for internalized discourse. The theory preserves the principles of Quint-patterning, Idea-formatting, N-ary-branching and X-numbering, complying respectively with the hierarchical orderings of constituency, the atomic elements of componentiality, the linear sequences of precedence and the specific measurement of terminal nodes. NRT tells that the macro-system of narrative superstructure must have emerged autonomously, yet links closely with the micro-system of phonology, morphology and syntax. This article explores for the first time scientific insights into the nature of human language, referring to recent research on the right cerebrum as well as on the prefrontal lobes of the brain, the relationship between mental disorders and their genetic deficiencies, and the investigations of human evolution during the period 200,000–40,000 years BP. All the converging evidence in biological sciences reinforces the hypothesis that the narrative superstructure of language faculty manifests as an inherent linguistic capacity in our mind.

Language in Our Brain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela D. Friederici ◽  
Noam Chomsky
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Processing Language

The language faculty is grounded in the human brain and allows any infant to learn any language. In her book, Angela D. Friederici offers a neurobiological theory of human language by integrating data from adult language processing, language development and brain evolution across primates. Describing the brain basis of language in its functional and structural neuroanatomy as well as its neurodynamics, she argues that differences in the brain that are species-specific may be at the root of human language.

scholarly journals Sobre linguagem, cognição e cérebro: Uma entrevista com Peter Hagoort

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (45) ◽  
pp. 291-296
Author(s):  
Brigitte L.M Bauer ◽  
Mailce Borges Mota
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Max Planck ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Founding Director ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Human Language Faculty

Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, founding Director of the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (DCCN, 1999), and professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Radboud University, all located in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, PETER HAGOORT examines how the brain controls language production and comprehension. He was one of the first to integrate psychological theory and models from neuroscience in an attempt to understand how the human language faculty is instantiated in the brain.

scholarly journals Cultural evolution: implications for understanding the human language faculty and its evolution

2008 ◽  
Vol 363 (1509) ◽  
pp. 3591-3603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenny Smith ◽  
Simon Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Explanatory Account ◽  
Biological Capacity

Human language is unique among the communication systems of the natural world: it is socially learned and, as a consequence of its recursively compositional structure, offers open-ended communicative potential. The structure of this communication system can be explained as a consequence of the evolution of the human biological capacity for language or the cultural evolution of language itself. We argue, supported by a formal model, that an explanatory account that involves some role for cultural evolution has profound implications for our understanding of the biological evolution of the language faculty: under a number of reasonable scenarios, cultural evolution can shield the language faculty from selection, such that strongly constraining language-specific learning biases are unlikely to evolve. We therefore argue that language is best seen as a consequence of cultural evolution in populations with a weak and/or domain-general language faculty.

scholarly journals Introducing the Special Issue: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Code-Switching

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Draško Kašćelan ◽  
Margaret Deuchar
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Valuable Source ◽  
Human Language Faculty

Research on code-switching was the province of specialists in linguistics alone in the latter part of the twentieth century and is still a valuable source of insights into the human language faculty [...]

scholarly journals Beyond the GFAP-Astrocyte Protein Markers in the Brain

Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1361
Author(s):  
Agnieszka M. Jurga ◽  
Martyna Paleczna ◽  
Justyna Kadluczka ◽  
Katarzyna Z. Kuter
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Structural Diversity ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Cellular Interactions ◽  
Quick Response ◽  
Protein Markers ◽  
Marker Proteins ◽  
Functional Efficiency ◽  
The Brain

The idea of central nervous system as one-man band favoring neurons is long gone. Now we all are aware that neurons and neuroglia are team players and constant communication between those various cell types is essential to maintain functional efficiency and a quick response to danger. Here, we summarize and discuss known and new markers of astroglial multiple functions, their natural heterogeneity, cellular interactions, aging and disease-induced dysfunctions. This review is focused on newly reported facts regarding astrocytes, which are beyond the old stereotypes. We present an up-to-date list of marker proteins used to identify a broad spectrum of astroglial phenotypes related to the various physiological and pathological nervous system conditions. The aim of this review is to help choose markers that are well-tailored for specific needs of further experimental studies, precisely recognizing differential glial phenotypes, or for diagnostic purposes. We hope it will help to categorize the functional and structural diversity of the astroglial population and ease a clear readout of future experimental results.

The Siege of Paris

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Berwick ◽  
Noam Chomsky
Keyword(s):  
Specific Property ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Species Specific ◽  
Human Language Faculty

In a response to Cedric Boeckx, Robert Berwick and Noam Chomsky defend and update their argument that the human language faculty is a species-specific property, with no known group differences and little variation.

scholarly journals Chestnut-crowned babbler calls are composed of meaningless shared building blocks

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (39) ◽  
pp. 19579-19584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Engesser ◽  
Jennifer L. Holub ◽  
Louis G. O’Neill ◽  
Andrew F. Russell ◽  
Simon W. Townsend
Keyword(s):  
Communication Systems ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Core Component ◽  
Sound System ◽  
Combinatorial System ◽  
Constituent Elements ◽  
Combinatorial Strategy ◽  
Recent Idea ◽  
The Way

A core component of human language is its combinatorial sound system: meaningful signals are built from different combinations of meaningless sounds. Investigating whether nonhuman communication systems are also combinatorial is hampered by difficulties in identifying the extent to which vocalizations are constructed from shared, meaningless building blocks. Here we present an approach to circumvent this difficulty and show that a pair of functionally distinct chestnut-crowned babbler (Pomatostomus ruficeps) vocalizations can be decomposed into perceptibly distinct, meaningless entities that are shared across the 2 calls. Specifically, by focusing on the acoustic distinctiveness of sound elements using a habituation-discrimination paradigm on wild-caught babblers under standardized aviary conditions, we show that 2 multielement calls are composed of perceptibly distinct sounds that are reused in different arrangements across the 2 calls. Furthermore, and critically, we show that none of the 5 constituent elements elicits functionally relevant responses in receivers, indicating that the constituent sounds do not carry the meaning of the call and so are contextually meaningless. Our work, which allows combinatorial systems in animals to be more easily identified, suggests that animals can produce functionally distinct calls that are built in a way superficially reminiscent of the way that humans produce morphemes and words. The results reported lend credence to the recent idea that language’s combinatorial system may have been preceded by a superficial stage where signalers neither needed to be cognitively aware of the combinatorial strategy in place, nor of its building blocks.

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