Acta Linguistica Academica
Volume/Issue:
Volume 66: Issue 3
Some biolinguistic remarks
Author:
Michael Brody University College London

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Pages:
335–347
Online Publication Date:
Sep 2019
Publication Date:
01 Sep 2019
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/2062.2019.66.3.2
Keywords:
Chomskyan revolution; evolution of language; one-dimensional syntax; recursion; center embedding
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After comments with laudatory and clarifying intent on the Chomskyan revolution, I make some critical remarks on Eörs Szathmáry's views on the evolution of language and its relation to the brain. This is followed by a brief sketch of the theory of one-dimensional syntax in the biolinguistic context, leading to the conclusion that the item-organizing specificity of human language may not be due to a qualitative change in narrow syntactic ability. This unique property may instead be a consequence of the possession of an interpretive module capable of parallel processing of numerous simple one-dimensional syntactic structures – which individually have no more configurational complexity than birdsong.

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Cover Acta Linguistica Academica
Acta Linguistica Academica An International Journal of Linguistics
Print ISSN:
2559-8201
Online ISSN:
2560-1016

Editors

Editor-in-Chief: András Cser

Editor: György Rákosi

Review Editor: Tamás Halm

Editorial Board

  • Anne Abeillé / Université Paris Diderot
  • Željko Bošković / University of Connecticut
  • Marcel den Dikken / Eötvös Loránd University; Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, Budapest
  • Hans-Martin Gärtner / Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, Budapest
  • Elly van Gelderen / Arizona State University
  • Anders Holmberg / Newcastle University
  • Katarzyna Jaszczolt / University of Cambridge
  • Dániel Z. Kádár / Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, Budapest
  • István Kenesei / University of Szeged; Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, Budapest
  • Anikó Lipták / Leiden University
  • Katalin Mády / Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, Budapest
  • Gereon Müller / Leipzig University
  • Csaba Pléh / Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Central European University
  • Giampaolo Salvi / Eötvös Loránd University
  • Irina Sekerina / College of Staten Island CUNY
  • Péter Siptár / Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics, Budapest
  • Gregory Stump / University of Kentucky
  • Peter Svenonius / University of Tromsø
  • Anne Tamm / Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church
  • Akira Watanabe / University of Tokyo
  • Jeroen van de Weijer / Shenzhen University

 

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Acta Linguistica Academica
Language English
Size B5
Year of
Foundation		 2017 (1951)
Volumes
per Year		 1
Issues
per Year		 4
Founder Magyar Tudományos Akadémia   
Founder's
Address		 H-1051 Budapest, Hungary, Széchenyi István tér 9.
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
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ISSN 2559-8201 (Print)
ISSN 2560-1016 (Online)

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