Search results for "Human language"

Neurobiological roots of language in primate audition : common computational properties

2015

Here, we present a new perspective on an old question: how does the neurobiology of human language relate to brain systems in nonhuman primates? We argue that higher-order language combinatorics, including sentence and discourse processing, can be situated in a unified, cross-species dorsal-ventral streams architecture for higher auditory processing, and that the functions of the dorsal and ventral streams in higher-order language processing can be grounded in their respective computational properties in primate audition. This view challenges an assumption, common in the cognitive sciences, that a nonhuman primate model forms an inherently inadequate basis for modeling higher-level language…

The exceptional nature of the first person in natural story processing and the transfer of egocentricity

2018

Human language enables us to externalise self-internal information (e.g. emotions or beliefs that are not readily accessible to others). Thus, language bridges the gap between the self and the other (e.g. Frith and Frith, 2010) in a way that possibly no other communication system can provide. In many languages, the difference between the self and others is directly reflected in the distinction between first (“I”), second (“you”) and third person (“he, she”) marking. In the present study, we compared ERPs to first, second and third person pronouns during the comprehension of an audio-book version of The Little Prince. Our results revealed a strong P300 response following first person pronoun…

Centre-embedded structures are a by-product of associative learning and working memory constraints: Evidence from baboons (Papio Papio)

2012

International audience; Influential theories have claimed that the ability for recursion forms the computational core of human language faculty distinguishing our communication system from that of other animals (Hauser, Chomsky, & Fitch, 2002). In the present study, we consider an alternative view on recursion by studying the contribution of associative and working memory processes. After an intensive paired-associate training with visual shapes, we observed that baboons spontaneously ordered their responses in keeping with a recursive, centre-embedded structure. This result suggests that the human ability for recursion might partly if not entirely originate from fundamental processing cons…

Tarski’s t-scheme as an alleged basis of Montague semantics

2007

My point in this paper is to focus on some details of Alfred Tarski’s writing that in my opinion have not been aptly represented — or aptly rejected — in Richard Montague’s grammar and to agree with those who share Tarski’s view that human language is something uncapturable. The paper consists of two parts, concerning 1) some attempts to formalize the non-declarative utterances, and 2) the limitations of T-scheme and of Montague grammar.

Senti chi parla. Su un aspetto dell’attività di parola a partire da Lacan.

2017