Primate Communication and Human Language
Vocalisation, gestures, imitation and deixis in humans and non-humans
1st Edition
Published on 30. March 2011
VI, 239 pages
978-90-272-8731-1 (ISBN)
Description
After a long period where it has been conceived as iconoclastic and almost forbidden, the question of language origins is now at the centre of a rich debate, confronting acute proposals and original theories. Most importantly, the debate is nourished by a large set of experimental data from disciplines surrounding language. The editors of the present book have gathered researchers from various fields, with the common objective of taking as seriously as possible the search for continuities from non-human primate vocal and gestural communication systems to human speech and language, in a multidisciplinary perspective combining ethology, neuroscience, developmental psychology and linguistics, as well as computer science and robotics. New data and theoretical elaborations on the emergence of referential communication and language are debated here by some of the most creative scientists in the world.
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Anne Vilain | Jean-Luc Schwartz | Christian Abry
Primate Communication and Human Language
Vocalisation, gestures, imitation and deixis in humans and non-humans
Book
03/2011
John Benjamins Publishing Co
€100.70
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Content
- Primate Communication and Human Language
- Editorial page
- Title page
- LCC data
- Table of contents
- Primate communication and human language
- Introduction
- Following the route, chapter by chapter
- Concluding remarks
- References
- Part 1. Primate vocal communication: New findings about its complexity, adaptability and control
- Living links to human language
- The cognitive continuum
- The phonetics of primate calls
- The origins of phonology
- The origins of meaning
- a. Referential signals
- b. Audience effects
- c. Comprehension
- d. Eavesdropping
- The origins of morphosyntax
- Conclusions
- Acknowledgments
- References
- What can forest guenons "tell" us about the origin of language?
- Nonhuman primates as vocal communicants: A "phylogenetic gap"?
- Bridging the gap? screening "proto-language" properties in nonhuman primates: recent evidence from forest guenons
- Vocal use
- Auditory perception and message comprehension
- Vocal production
- Investigation perspectives for new emerging theories
- References
- Do chimpanzees have voluntary control of their facial expressions and vocalizations?
- Defining sounds versus vocalizations
- Audience and visual attention effects on sound and vocal production
- What is the function of these sounds and vocalizations?
- Neuropsychological and neurophysiological evidence
- Discussion
- Acknowledgement
- References
- Part 2. Neurophysiological, behavioural and ontogenetic data on the evolution of communicative orofacial and manual gestures
- From gesture to language
- Introduction
- I. Gestural communication in human children
- II. Asymmetries of vocal and gestural communicative behaviours in humans
- III. Properties of gestural communication in nonhuman primates
- 1. Flexibility
- 2. Learning
- 3. Intentionality
- 4. Pointing and referential properties
- IV. Gestural communication, lateralization and the brain
- 1. Handedness in nonhuman primates
- 1. Manual asymmetries for gestures
- 2. Neural correlates of gestural communication
- V. Discussion
- 1. Pointing, a step for the emergence of language?
- 2. Comparison of features between vocal and gestural communication in nonhuman primates
- 3. A bimodal system rather a gestural system?
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgments
- References
- Mirror neurons and imitation from a developmental and evolutionary perspective
- Mirror neurons in the monkey premotor and parietal cortices
- Action understanding as a basic function of mirror neurons
- The mirror neuron system in humans
- Mirror neurons and imitation
- Behavioral studies in non-human primates
- Imitation from a developmental perspective - behavioral and neurophysiological studies
- Conclusions
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Lashley's problem of serial order and the evolution of learnable vocal and manual communication
- The serial organization of speech: Evidence from speech errors
- Evolution of the frame/content mode of organization
- Serial organization of sign language: Evidence from sign errors
- The serial organization of birdsong
- Summary
- References
- Part 3. Emergence and development of speech, gestures and language
- Naming with gestures in children with typical development and with Down syndrome
- Introduction
- Gesture and words in typically developing children
- Data collection and analysis
- The naming task with typically developing children
- Gesture and words in children with down syndrome
- The naming task with children with down syndrome
- Concluding remarks
- Acknowledgments
- References
- Illuminating language origins from the perspective of contemporary ontogeny in human infants
- Theoretical perspectives
- Mechanisms underlying ontogenetic and phylogenetic processes
- The frame-content theory
- Within syllable patterns of cv co-occurrence
- Across syllable patterns
- General mechanisms: Self organization
- General mechanisms: Learning
- Implications for considering phylogeny
- References
- Emergence of articulatory-acoustic systems from deictic interaction games in a "Vocalize to Localize" framework
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Deriving morphogenesis theories from origins theories
- 2.1 Morphogenesis theories
- 2.2 Origins theories: Vocalize to Localize
- 2.3 An integrated framework
- 3. Computational models of language emergence in a society of interacting agents
- 4. Modelling
- 4.1 General principles
- 4.2 Bayesian modelling
- 5. Results
- 5.1 Technical details
- 5.2 Simulations
- 6. Conclusions and perspectives
- 7. References
- 2 + 2 Linguistic minimal frames
- Time to crack the crust!
- Fieldwork soft minimalism
- Minimalist hard thesis gone mad
- Language = Babbling + Pointing, then Predicating + Telling
- Pointing: Its phonology, lexicon-grabbing, morphology and syntax
- Compounding words/signs as a key to morphologize and phonologize language
- References
- Name index
- Subject index
