Human Language and Our Reptilian Brain : : The Subcortical Bases of Speech, Syntax, and Thought / / Philip Lieberman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Harvard University Press eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Lieberman, Philip,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2002]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2002
• Language: English
• Series: Perspectives in Cognitive Neuroscience
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.)

This book is an entry into the fierce current debate among psycholinguists, neuroscientists, and evolutionary theorists about the nature and origins of human language. A prominent neuroscientist here takes up the Darwinian case, using data seldom considered by psycholinguists and neurolinguists to argue that human language--though more sophisticated than all other forms of animal communication--is not a qualitatively different ability from all forms of animal communication, does not require a quantum evolutionary leap to explain it, and is not unified in a single "language instinct." Using clinical evidence from speech-impaired patients, functional neuroimaging, and evolutionary biology to make his case, Philip Lieberman contends that human language is not a single separate module but a functional neurological system made up of many separate abilities. Language remains as it began, Lieberman argues: a device for coping with the world. But in a blow to human narcissism, he makes the case that this most remarkable human ability is a by-product of our remote reptilian ancestors' abilities to dodge hazards, seize opportunities, and live to see another day.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Figures -- Introduction -- CHAPTER 1. Functional Neural Systems -- CHAPTER 2. Speech Production and Perception -- CHAPTER 3. The Lexicon and Working Memory -- CHAPTER 4. The Subcortical Basal Ganglia -- CHAPTER 5. The Evolution of the Functional Language System -- CHAPTER 6. Commentary -- Notes -- References -- Index