Language Evolution and Computation Bibliography

The evolution of language capabilities is closely linked to the evolution of human brain structures. Human brain auditory cortices are anatomically and functionally asymmetrical. Studies at the microscopic level have found a thinner cortex and more widely spaced neuronal columns in the left (dominant) hemisphere, which reasonably correlate with its greater ability to discriminate speech sounds. The nature of these differences is consistent with a ''balloon model'' of brain growth, which states that as the brain white matter grows, it stretches the overlying cortex. Thus, the amount and duration of brain growth is an important factor in acquiring the ability to perceive speech. Humans have a much longer brain maturation time than any other primates (or animals). This ''extended maturation time'' allows language capabilities to evolve in the brain over time, rather than requiring them to be present at birth. The extended maturation time also must have a genetic basis, but not one specific to language, and the HAR1, G72 and FOXP2 genes might well be examples of genes which affect cortical and white matter growth. Finally, if this neuronal system can learn language without depending on specific language genes, then what could be the origin of universal grammar? Natural human grammars, like object-oriented software programs, are constrained to describe our experiential universe -- an idea mooted also by ''the early Wittgenstein'' and others. Insofar as humans mostly share the same experiential universe, our descriptions of it (our languages, some branches of mathematics) share many features; these common features can appear as a ''universal grammar.''