Schedule StuTS 70

Human language rests upon an evolved biological foundation, some components of which are unique to our species. Although language, as a whole, is unique to humans, many components of language are nonetheless shared with other animals. The precise nature of the mechanisms underlying language remains debated, as does the degree to which they are or are not shared with other animals.

I outline a thoroughly comparative approach to this current research problem. I first illustrate the value of a comparative approach with case studies on speech and syntax. In speech, recent data indicate that a long-standing focus on vocal anatomy, and particularly the descended human larynx, has deflected attention away from more fundamental changes in the neural pathways involved in speech control. Regarding syntax, recent data examining pattern perception in both auditory and visual domains suggest that some aspects of linguistic syntax rest on a cognitive basis that also applies to other human cognitive domains including music and visual pattern perception. Specifically, the strong human propensity to attribute complex, hierarchically-embedded structures to visual or auditory inputs appears to be biologically unusual or perhaps unique to our species. I then turn to the “cognition vs. communication” debate, arguing that many of the key neural and computational precursors of human language are more likely to be found in cognitive operations (e.g. social cognition or technology) than in the communication systems of our pre-linguistic ancestors.

References:

Fitch, W. Tecumseh (2010). The Evolution of Language (Cambridge University Press)

Fitch (2020) Animal cognition and the evolution of human language: why we cannot focus solely on communication. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 375:1-9.

Info

Day: 2021-11-18
Start time: 10:30
Duration: 01:00
Room: 👾
Track: Keynote
Language: en

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