Full Description
The papers assembled in this volume aim to contribute to our understanding of the human capacity for language: the generative procedure that relates sounds and meanings via syntax. Different hypotheses about the properties of this generative procedure are under discussion, and their connection with biology is open to important cross-disciplinary work. Advances have been made in human-animal studies to differentiate human language from animal communication. Contributions from neurosciences point to the exclusive properties of the human brain for language. Studies in genetically based language impairments also contribute to the understanding of the properties of the language organ. This volume brings together contributions on theoretical and experimental investigations on the Language Faculty. It will be of interest to scholars and students investigating the properties of the biological basis of language, in terms the modeling of the language faculty, as well as the properties of language variation, language acquisition and language impairments.
Contents
1. Biolinguistic investigations on the Language Faculty: Introduction (by Di Sciullo, Anna Maria); 2. Section 1. Language faculty; 3. The biolinguistics program: Questions and hypotheses (by Di Sciullo, Anna Maria); 4. Symbol taxonomy in biophonology (by Matamoros, Camila); 5. The centrality of speech for human thought (by Rossello Ximenes, Joana); 6. Electroencephalographic evidence of vowels computation and representation in human auditory cortex (by Grimaldi, Mirko); 7. Section 2. Language variation; 8. Feature values and the expression of variation (by Chandra, Pritha); 9. Object pronouns in the evolution of Romanian: A biolinguistic perspective (by Di Sciullo, Anna Maria); 10. The interplay of silent nouns and (reduced) relatives in Malay adjectival modification (by Espanol-Echevarria, Manuel); 11. Section 3. Language (acquisition and) impairments; 12. A study on an alleged case of Spanish SLI and the founder effect (by Gavarro, Anna); 13. Syntax and its interfaces at the low and high ends of the autism spectrum (by Terzi, Arhonto); 14. Communication in schizophrenia, between pragmatics, cognition, and social cognition (by Bosia, Marta); 15. Author index; 16. Subject index
