Abstract
Beginning from the agreement between CBM and DBM on the species-specificity of human language, in this chapter the authors will discuss the strictly technical interpretation with which the evolutionary approach defines this notion and which has been much abused particularly in philosophical speculation. In particular, they connect with the notion of the origin of Lorenzian ethology to grasp the “coercive” content of the very idea of species-specificity. For Darwinian biolinguistics, the species-specificity of language is first and foremost the recognition of its biological constraints and the cognitive limitations. It follows a naturalistic linguistic philosophy emphasizing the special formatting of human linguistic cognition, as conditioned by a specific bodily language technology, and tecnomorphic characteristics of thought arising from it.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ambrose, S. H. (2001). Paleolithic technology and human evolution. Science, 291, 1748–1753.
Arthur, W. B. (2009). The nature of technology. What is and how it evolves. New York: Penguin Books.
Auroux, S. (1999). Scrittura e grammatizzazione. Introduzione alla storia delle scienze del linguaggio. Palermo: Novecento.
Berwick, R. C., & Chomsky, N. (2016). Why only us. Language and evolution. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (1968). Language and mind. New York: Harcourt Brace and World, Inc.
Chomsky, N. (1980). Rules and representations. New York/Oxford: Columbia University Press/Basil Blackwell Publisher.
Corning, P. (2003). Nature’s magic. Synergy in evolution and the fate of humankind. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Damasio, A. (1999). The feeling of what happens body and emotion in the making of consciousness. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Gould, S. J., & Vrba, E. S. (1982). Exaptation. A missing term in the science of form. Paleobiology, 8, 4–15.
Hauser, M. D. (2009). The possibility of impossible cultures. Nature Horizons, 460(9), 190–196.
Kratzenstein, C. T. (1781). Tentamen resolvendi problema ab Academia scientiarum imperiali pe- tropolitana ad annum 1780 publice propositum: 1. Qualis sit natura et character sonorum vocalium a, e, i, o, u tam insigniter se diversorum; 2. Annon construi queant. Instrumenta ordine tuborum organicorum, sub-termino vocis humanae noto, similia, quae litterarum vocalium a, e, i, o, u sonos exprimant. In publico Academiae conventu, die XIX septembris 1780, praemio coronatum, Acta Academia Petropolitana, Petersburg, 1-50.
Lenneberg, E. H. (1971). Of language knowledge, apes, and brains. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 1(1), 1–29.
Lieberman, P. (1975). On the origins of language. An introduction to the evolution of human speech. New York: Macmillan.
Lo Piparo, F. (2003). Aristotele e il linguaggio. Cosa fa di una lingua una lingua. Roma: Laterza.
Lorenz, K. (1959). Psychologie und Stammesgeschichte. In G. Heberer (Ed.), Evolution der Organismen (pp. 131–172). Stuttgart: Fischer.
Lorenz, K. (1973b). Die Rückseite des Spiegels. Versuch einer Naturgeschichte menschlichen Erkennens. München: Piper.
Lorenz, K. (1978). Vergleichende Verhaltensforschung. Grundlagen der Ethologie. Wien: Springer.
Lorenz, K. (1983). Der Abbau des Menschlichen. München: Piper.
Pennisi, A. (2006). Patologie e psicopatologie del linguaggio. In A. Pennisi & P. Perconti (Eds.), Le scienze cognitive del linguaggio (pp. 175–250). Bologna: Il Mulino.
Pennisi, A. (2014b). La tecnologia del linguaggio tra passato e presente. Blitiry, II(2), 195–220.
Read, D. (2007). Artefact classification: A conceptual and methodological approach. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.
Read, D., & Van Der Leeuw, S. (2008). Biology is only part of the story…. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 363(1499), 1959–1968.
Renfrew, C., Frith, C. D., & Malafouris, L. (2009). The sapient mind: Archaeology meets neuroscience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Riskin, J. (2003). Eighteenth-century wetware. Representations, 83(1), 97–125.
Rucker, R. B. (1988). Wetware. New York: Avon Books.
Spelke, E. (2009). Forum. In M. Tomasello (Ed.), Why we cooperate (pp. 149–172). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Spelke, E., & Hauser, H. (2004). Evolutionary and developmental foundations of human knowledge: A case study of mathematics. In M. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The cognitive neurosciences (Vol. III). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Stout, D., Toth, N., Schick, K., & Chaminade, T. (2009). Neural correlates of early stoneage toolmaking: Technology, language and cognition in human evolutio. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 363, 1939–1949.
Tomasello, M. (2009). Why we cooperate. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Von Kempelen, W. (1778) Mechanismus der menschlichen sprache: nebst der Beschreibung seiner sprechenden Maschine, Wien: Degen (1791).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pennisi, A., Falzone, A. (2016). The Nature of the Species-specificity of Human Language. In: Darwinian Biolinguistics . Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47688-9_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47688-9_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47686-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47688-9
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)