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Language is fundamentally a social affair

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2005

Justin H. G. Williams
Justin H. G. Williams*
Affiliation:
Department of Child Health, University of Aberdeen School of Medicine, Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, AberdeenAB25 2ZG, Scotland, United Kingdomhttp://www.abdn.ac.uk/child_health/williams.hti
*
[email protected]
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Abstract:

Perhaps the greatest evolutionary advantage conferred by spoken language was its ability to communicate mentalistic concepts, rather than just extending the vocabulary of action already served by an imitation function. An appreciation that the mirror-neuron system served a simple mentalising function before gestural communication sets Arbib's theory in a more appropriate social cognitive context.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , April 2005 , pp. 146 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

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