Lingua ex machina
Subtitle: Reconciling Darwin and Chomsky with the human brain
By: William H. Calvin, Derek Bickerton
Contributors: Bickerton, Derek
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 298
ISBN-13: 9780262032735; 9780262531986
Subjects: Neurologische aspecten; Language Development; Evolution; Taalgenese; Neurophysiology; Psycholinguistics; Neurolinguistics; Cerveau; Évolution; Hersenen; Brain; Taalvermogen; Neurolinguistique; Neurolinguïstiek; Physiology
Description: "A proper lingua ex machina would be a language machine capable of nesting phrases and clauses inside one another, complete with evolutionary pedigree. Such circuitry for structured thought might also facilitate creative shaping up of quality (figuring out what to do with the leftovers in the refrigerator), contingency planning, procedural games, logic, and even music. And enhancing structural thought might give intelligence a big boost.

Solve the cerebral circuitry for syntax, and you might solve them all." "William Calvin and Derek Bickerton offer three ways for getting from ape behaviors to syntax. They focus on the transition from simple word association in short sentences (proto-language) to longer recursively structural sentences (requiring syntax). They are after invention via sidesteps (Darwinian conversions of function), not straight-line gradual improvements."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: "A Bradford book."

Includes bibliographical references (p. [261]-280) and index.

Also available via the World Wide Web.
Table of contents: title: The Villa Serbelloni; title: What are words?; title: Why putting words together isn't easy; title: Bigger than a word, smaller than a sentence; title: Language in the brain; title: How are memories stored?; title: Hexagonal mosaics and Darwin machines; title: A common code: the brain's "Esperanto" problem; title: Protolanguage emerging; title: Reciprocal altruism as the predecessor of argument structure; title: Role links for words; title: The word tree as a secondary use of throwing's segmented movement planner; title: Corticocortical coherence promotes a many-voiced symphonic sentence; title: The pump and the slingshot; title: Darwin and Chomsky together at last.