Synergy, Neuroanatomy, Hemispheres

Abstract

If there was some such dialectic of cultural and biological factors in the evolution of human language (one that is still ontogenetically recapitulated), the latter factors involved a synergy accounting for Bronowski’s ‘biological frame’ for language. It is certain that human language was made possible biologically not by any single genetic mutation but by a complex of mutations phenotypically realized and selected for over a (relatively) brief period. Together comprising a threshold event, they gave rise to the neuroanatomy of language and tuned the grosser structures of acoustic communication. The oral and aural structures, delicate and impressive as they are, are fairly obvious in their workings, and recent speech-synthesis programs demonstrate that the electronic production of speech, complete with a wide range of nuances, will soon be possible (though speech-recognition programs remain problematic — this situation contrasts with that of simulation programs that deal with semantically conditioned syntax, for there recognition presents fewer problems than production). The engaging subject is thus the neuroanatomy.