Language Evolution and Computation Bibliography

Different words mean different things. That is, wherever there is a difference in form in a language, there is a difference in meaning. This is what, in 1980, I called the Principle of Contrast.'It is by virtue of this property that language maintains its usefulness as a medium ...

The motor theory is not only a theory of language origin and development but also a theory of current language function. Language is constructed on the basis of a previously existing complex system, the neural motor system. The motor system has been built up from a limited number of primitive elements - units of motor action - which can be formed into more extended motor programs. The programs and procedures which evolved for the construction and execution of simple and sequential motor movements formed the basis of the programs and procedures going to form language. The development of the language capacity has resulted from the progressive establishment of new cross-modal or transfunctional neural linkages, cerebral reorganization in the sense that the interconnectedness of different brain regions concerned with what are usually considered distinct functions, has substantially increased. This extensive relation between language and the motor system is what one might reasonably expect, given the central role of the motor system in all behaviour and the essentially motor character of speech production, as the outcome of movements of the articulatory apparatus. The motor system is seen as the indispensable mediator between different modalities, and particularly between language and perception.