Language, Mind, and Brainby Ewa Dabrowska

Chapter 6: Biological underpinnings

1. A genetically specified language module?

• Q: What are the are arguments against a language module in the brain?

1. A genetically specified language module?

• Q: What are the are arguments against a language module in the brain?

• A: No one can find this language module; human brains are not essentially different from ape brains; there aren’t enough genes to fully determine wiring; brains are plastic.

2. Human adaptations to language

• 2.1 Preadaptations included:– Increase in brain size (until 300K years ago)– Changes in upper respiratory tract, facilitating

articulation of sounds

2.2 Cultural learning and mind-reading

• “Cumulative cultural evolution is a necessary condition for language”

• Tomasello argues that only humans have this capacity because only humans can understand a goal and learn by imitation.

2.3 Cortical control…

• Q: How do human vocalizations differ from those of animals?

2.3 Cortical control…

• Q: How do human vocalizations differ from those of animals?

• A: Rather than merely responding to psychological states, we can consciously control our vocalizations. Also, we can package actions in sequences, which facilitates syntax.

3. Language adaptations to humans

• Q: What is convergent evolution?

3. Language adaptations to humans

• Q: What is convergent evolution?

• A: The spontaneous and independent evolution of similar features in language, given the biases of human perception and cognition– “languages independently come to resemble

each other, not in detail, but in terms of certain general structural properties”

3. Language adaptations to humans

• Q: What do we know about absolute universals?

3. Language adaptations to humans

• Q: What do we know about absolute universals?

• A: They are hard to find and uninteresting. Cross-linguistic patterns are more interesting and explainable due to things like pressures of processing, discourse, and general preference for iconic structures.

4.1 Problems with poverty-of-stimulus argument

• Q: What does Universal Grammar assume?

4.1 Problems with poverty-of-stimulus argument

• Q: What does Universal Grammar assume?

• A: Human language has certain universal properties that cannot be learned because children do not have access to sufficient input.

4.1 Problems with poverty-of-stimulus argument

• Q: What is wrong with these assumptions?

4.1 Problems with poverty-of-stimulus argument

• Q: What is wrong with these assumptions?

• A: They are just that – assumptions, and often do not hold up to empirical study. The stimulus is not impoverished, and there are things not in UG that have to be learned too…

5. Conclusions

• Language is an evolutionary late-comer that piggybacks on structures evolved for other purposes. A theory of language should minimize postulations of language-specific adaptations.