Talk 1. Language disorders through the lens of biolinguistics
Abstract. Clinical linguistics struggles to establish exact typologies of developmental
language disorders (e.g. dyslexia, childhood apraxia of speech, developmental language
disorder), as well as sharp language profiles of broader cognitive conditions impacting onlanguage (e.g. autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia) or conditions presenting withlanguage impairment that result from specific damage in the biological infrastructure oflanguage (e.g. basal ganglia diseases, Williams Syndrome, FOXP2 mutations). On paper,
each of these conditions is expected to present with a distinctive, condition-specific setof abnormal features at different language levels (from phonology to morphology tosyntax, but also with regards to how language is put into use), but also at their biologicalunderpinnings (from genes to brain areas to cognitive and behavioural abilities).
Nonetheless, patients can be seldom ascribed unambiguously to such putative categories
or language profiles. The difficulties for linking biological damage (at the bottom) tolanguage deficits (at the surface) hinder a precise diagnosis and an efficient treatment ofpatients. In this talk, it will be argued that biolinguistics can help clinical linguistics
significantly to circumvent these caveats and limitations, since its main objective isproviding robust bridging theories between biology and language. More specifically, it
will be argued for putting the focus on intermediate-level layers and components oflanguage, particularly, brain oscillations. This claim will be illustrated by the construal oflanguage deficits in ASD and in people with mutations in GRIN2A from this oscillopathic
perspective. The talk will conclude with some potential ways of improving this new
approach to language disorders and with some avenues for future research in this area.
Selected references:Benítez-Burraco, A. (2016). A biolinguistic approach to language disorders: towards a paradigm
shift in clinical linguistics. In Advances in Biolinguistics (pp. 256-271). Routledge.
Murphy, E., & Benítez-Burraco, A. (2017). Language deficits in schizophrenia and autism asrelated oscillatory connectomopathies: An evolutionary account. Neuroscience and biobehavioralreviews, 83, 742–764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.07.029
Jiménez-Bravo, M., Marrero, V., & Benítez-Burraco, A. (2017). An oscillopathic approach todevelopmental dyslexia: From genes to speech processing. Behavioural brain research, 329, 84–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2017.03.048
Murphy, E., & Benítez-Burraco, A. (2018). Toward the Language Oscillogenome. Frontiers inpsychology, 9, 1999. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01999
Benítez-Burraco, A., & Murphy, E. (2019). Why Brain Oscillations Are Improving OurUnderstanding of Language. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 13, 190.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00190
Murphy, E., Hoshi, K., & Benítez-Burraco, A. (2022). Subcortical syntax: Reconsidering theneuraldynamics
oflanguage.
Journalof
Neurolinguistics,
62,101062.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0911604422000069
Benítez-Burraco, A., Hoshi, K., & Murphy, E. (2023). Language deficits in GRIN2A mutationsand Landau–Kleffner syndrome as neural dysrhythmias. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 67, 101139.

Talk 2. Human self-domestication and the evolution of modern language(s)Abstract. This talk is aimed to re-examine the problem of the evolution of language (andthe emergence of present-day languages) from the perspective of a new account of how
humans might have evolved, namely, the self-domestication hypothesis of humanevolution. In brief, this hypothesis argues that our species went through an evolutionary
process that parallels the changes experienced by domesticated mammals. Interestingly,
this process can account for many of the cognitive and behavioural distinctive features of
the human species with an impact on language acquisition and use. Specifically, it might
have decisively contributed to the potentiation of the cultural niche that enables thecomplexification of languages via a cultural mechanism. Diverse types of evidence (frompaleogenetic to clinical) will be presented to support this claim. Two main outcomes ofthis evolutionary process will be examined: the complexification of grammar and thecomplexification of prosody. Nonetheless, as it will be also discussed in the talk,increased self-domestication is expected to have contributed to improve language use(pragmatics) too, and ultimately, other human-distinctive, language-related behaviours,
like music. Overall, it will be defended an evolutionary model for language that sees
language evolution as a gradual process complexly interwoven with the gradual evolutionof human modern biology, behaviour, and culture, and for which cultural niche
construction, facilitated by human self-domestication, might have been a main driving
force.
Selected references:
Progovac, L., & Benítez-Burraco, A. (2019). From Physical Aggression to Verbal Behavior:
Language Evolution and Self-Domestication Feedback Loop. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2807.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02807
Benítez-Burraco, A., & Progovac, L. (2020). A four-stage model for language evolution under theeffects of human self-domestication. Language & Communication, 73, 1-17.
Benítez-Burraco A. (2021). Mental time travel, language evolution, and human selfdomestication. Cognitive processing, 22(2), 363–367. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-02001005-2
Benítez-Burraco, A., Ferretti, F., & Progovac, L. (2021). Human Self-Domestication and theEvolution of Pragmatics. Cognitive science, 45(6), e12987. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12987
Benítez‐Burraco, A., & Elvira‐García, W. (2023). Human self‐domestication and the evolution ofprosody.
LanguageandLinguistics
Compass,17(3),e12485.
https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/lnc3.12485
Benítez-Burraco, A., & Nikolsky, A. (2023). The (Co)Evolution of Language and Music Under
Human Self-Domestication. Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.), 10.1007/s12110-023-09447-1.
Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-023-09447-1