How the Brain Evolved Language

by Donald Loritz

Overview

How can an infinite number of sentences be generated from one human mind? How did language evolve in apes? In this book Donald Loritz addresses these and other fundamental and vexing questions about language, cognition, and the human brain. He starts by tracing how evolution and natural adaptation selected certain features of the brain to perform communication functions, then shows how those features developed into designs for human language. The result — what Loritz calls an adaptive grammar — gives a unified explanation of language in the brain and contradicts directly (and controversially) the theory of innateness proposed by, among others, Chomsky and Pinker.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195151244
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/28/2002
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1330L (what's this?)

About the Author

Georgetown University

Table of Contents

1. Lought and Thanguage2. Jones' Theory of Evolution3. The Communicating Cell4. The Society of Brain5. Adaptive Resonance6. Speech and Hearing7. Speech Perception8. One, Two, Three9. Romiet and Juleo10. Null Movement11. Truth and Consequences12. What if Language is Learned by Brain CellsNotesBibliographyIndex