Current studies on the origin of language clearly show the necessity to go beyond the debate of nature vs. culture in order to pursue an interdisciplinary perspective. The convergence of researches carried out in different fields - neurobiology, palaeoanthropology and linguistics - outlines in a rather clear and convincing framework the strong link between language and motility. Various sources of evidence demonstrate how the mechanisms of culture acquisition and transmission - imitation, language and dexterity - refer back to the same cerebral structures. Moreover, both the motor and the linguistic systems show an identical multileveled basic structure that allows humans high levels of expressiveness. Actions such as the production of tools or the throwing of objects, connected to the very first human behaviours, emerge through space-time concatenations related to the linguistic logic. The hypothesis of a coevolution of language and motor patterns and of a very remote origin of verbal communication is thus debated.
The phylogenesis of languages: the grammar of gestures and the manipulation of words
PERETTO, Carlo
2006
Abstract
Current studies on the origin of language clearly show the necessity to go beyond the debate of nature vs. culture in order to pursue an interdisciplinary perspective. The convergence of researches carried out in different fields - neurobiology, palaeoanthropology and linguistics - outlines in a rather clear and convincing framework the strong link between language and motility. Various sources of evidence demonstrate how the mechanisms of culture acquisition and transmission - imitation, language and dexterity - refer back to the same cerebral structures. Moreover, both the motor and the linguistic systems show an identical multileveled basic structure that allows humans high levels of expressiveness. Actions such as the production of tools or the throwing of objects, connected to the very first human behaviours, emerge through space-time concatenations related to the linguistic logic. The hypothesis of a coevolution of language and motor patterns and of a very remote origin of verbal communication is thus debated.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
