Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T01:25:49.553Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Fuster’s Cherries and Linguistic Trees

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

Helmut Schnelle*
Affiliation:
Rochstrasse 4, D-10178 Berlin, Germany

Abstract

Bridging the gap between linguistic structure representations and neurocognitive representations is a difficult challenge. This article presents an outline of how a formally specified system of constituent structure grammar could be translated into a distributed hierarchy network of associated modules. A set of syntactic constituent rule units could be reinterpreted as complex neuronal modules, which interactively generate momentary binding associations. The iterating binding activity in the network corresponds to the syntactic structure representation of a given sentence.

Type
Focus: The Origin of Language
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References and Notes

1.Fuster, J. M. (2003) Cortex and Mind-Unifying Cognition Figure (New York: Oxford University Press), p. 209.Google Scholar
2. This figure resulted from discussions with my colleague M. Bierwisch.Google Scholar
3.Fuster, J. M. (2003) Cortex and Mind-Unifying Cognition Figure (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 14, 96.Google Scholar
4. N. Chomsky (1963) Formal properties of grammars. In: R. D. Luce, R. R. Bush and E. Galanter (eds) Handbook of Mathematical Psychology, Vol. II, Chapter 12, p. 326.Google Scholar
5. N. Chomsky (1963) Introduction to formal analysis of natural languages. In: R. D. Luce, R. R. Bush and E. Galanter (eds) Handbook of Mathematical Psychology, Vol. II, Chapter 11, pp. 290–325.Google Scholar
6. For more details see below, the section about the essentials of constituent structure syntax.Google Scholar
7. H. Schnelle (1996) Die Natur der Sprache- Die Dynamik der Prozesse des Sprechens und Verstehens (Berlin, NewYork: W de Gruyter), pp. 294–298. H. Schnelle (1981) Elements of theoretical net-linguistics. Theoretical Linguistics, 8, 67–100.Google Scholar
8. N. Chomsky (1963) Formal properties of grammars. In: R. D. Luce, R. R. Bush and E. Galanter (eds) Handbook of Mathematical Psychology, Vol. II, Chapter 12, p. 325.Google Scholar
9.Mountcastle, V. B. (1998) Perceptual Neuroscience – The Cerebral Cortex (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press) Chapters 7 and 10, esp. p. 268, Figure 10.6.Google Scholar
10.Fuster, J. M. (2003) Cortex and Mind-Unifying Cognition Figure (New York: Oxford University Press), p. 64.Google Scholar
11.Penrose, R. (1989) The Emperor’s New Mind – Concerning Computers, Minds and the Laws of Physics (New York: Oxford University Press), p. 171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12.Mountcastle, V. B. (1998) Perceptual Neuroscience – The Cerebral Cortex (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press), p. 268, Figure 10.6.Google Scholar
13.Felleman, D. J. and Van Essen, D. C. (1991) Distributed hierarchical processing in the primate cerebral cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 1, 147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
14. N. Chomsky and G. A. Miller (1963) Introduction to the formal analysis of natural language. In: R. D. Luce, R. R. Bush and E. Galanter (eds) Handbook of Mathematical Psychology, Vol. II, Chapter 11, p. 278.Google Scholar
15.Baars, B. J. and Gage, N. M. (2007) Cognition Brain, and Consciousness (London: Elsevier, Academic Press), p. 319.Google Scholar
16.Jackendoff, R. (2002) Foundations of Language (New York: Oxford University Press), p. 24ff., p. 56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17.Klein, W. and Purdue, C. (1997) The basic variety: or couldn’t language be much simpler. Second Language Research, 13, 301347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18. N. Chomsky (1957) Syntactic Structures (s’Gravenhage: Mouton).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19. H. Schnelle (1964) Programmieren linguistischer Automaten. In: K. Steinbuch and S. W. Wagner (eds) Neuere Ergebnissse der Kybernetik (München: Oldenbourg), pp. 109–136.Google Scholar