Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:49:29.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The tip of the language iceberg

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2014

Peter Ford Dominey
Peter Ford Dominey*
Affiliation:
Robot Cognition Laboratory, INSERM U846 Stem Cell andBrain Research Institute, 69675 Bron, France. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Arbib's How the brain got language is a major achievement in defining a trajectory for the evolution of complex imitation and the language-ready brain leading to human language. In addition to these capabilities, I will suggest that it is useful to consider two additional components of human brain function that are intricately related to the emergence of language. These are, first, the profound human motivation to represent and share the psychological states of others, and second, the related complex semantic system that represents the contents of what is communicated in language. In this sense, these two components represent part of what is under the iceberg, where language is the emerging tip.

Keywords

social interactionsemantics
Type
The mystery of motivation
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 5 , Issue 2-3: Special Issue , September 2013 , pp. 177 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2013

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

Barsalou, L. W. 1999. Perceptual symbol systems. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22. 577–609.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bergen, B. & Chang, N.. 2005. Embodied construction grammar in simulation-based language understanding. Construction grammars: Cognitive grounding and theoretical extensions, 147–190.Google Scholar
Binder, J. R. & Desai, R. H.. 2011. The neurobiology of semantic memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15. 527–536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Catani, M., Jones, D. K. & ffytche, D. H.. 2005. Perisylvian language networks of the human brain. Annals of Neurology 57. 8–16.Google Scholar
Dominey, P. & Boucher, J.. 2005. Learning to talk about events from narrated video in a construction grammar framework. Artificial Intelligence 167. 31–61.Google Scholar
Dominey, P., Mallet, A. & Yoshida, E.. 2009. Real-Time spoken-language programming for cooperative interaction with a humanoid apprentice. International Journal of Humanoids Robotics 6. 147–171.Google Scholar
Dominey, P. 2003. A conceptuocentric shift in the characterization of language. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 26. 674–675.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fern, A., Givan, R. & Siskind, J. M.. 2002. Specific-to-general learning for temporal events with application to learning event definitions from video. Artificial Intelligence Research 17. 379–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grice, H. P. 1975. Logic and conversation. In Cole, P. & Morgan, J. (eds.), Syntax and semantics, 41–58. Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Hinaut, X. & Dominey, P. F.. 2013. Real-time parallel processing of grammatical structure in the fronto-striatal system: A recurrent network simulation study using reservoir computing. PloS one 8(2): e52946. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052946.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, R. 2003. Précis of Foundations of language: Brain, meaning, grammar, evolution. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 26. 651–65.Google Scholar
Levinson, S. C. 2006. On the human “Interaction Engine”. In Levinson, S. C. & Enfield, N. J. (eds.), Roots of Human Society: Culture, Cognition, Interaction, 39–69. New York: Berg.Google Scholar
Neisser, U. 1997. The roots of self-knowledge: Perceiving self, it, and thou. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 818. 18–33.Google Scholar
Rilling, J. K., Glasser, M. F., Jbabdi, S., Andersson, J. & Preuss, T. M.. 2011. Continuity, divergence, and the evolution of brain language pathways. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience 3. 11.Google ScholarPubMed
Rilling, J. K., Glasser, M. F., Preuss, T. M., Ma, X. & Zhao, T.. 2008. The evolution of the arcuate fasciculus revealed with comparative DTI. Nature Neuroscience 11. 426–428.Google Scholar
Siskind, J. 2001. Grounding the lexical semantics of verbs in visual perception using force dynamics and event logic. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 15. 31–90.Google Scholar
Syal, S. & Finlay, B. L.. 2011. Thinking outside the cortex: Social motivation in the evolution and development of language. Developmental Science 14. 417–430.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T. & Moll, H.. 2005. Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28. 675–691.Google Scholar