PhD Seminar Linguistics - Massimo Piatelli June 2010

Massimo Piatelli (University of Arizona), ‘Biolinguistics’.

When: June 7, 9 & 11, 2010;  15 - 18h

This course will cover Biolinguistics under a particular angle: a modern naturalistic, but basically non-adaptationist, theory of evolution, and an inquiry into the biology and evolution of language as we know it. We will start with data and rationales explaining why we are justified in thinking that there is a biology of language. We will then proceed to an analysis of some language pathologies (we will see the best syntactic analyses of agrammatic aphasia - Josef Grodzinsky, Naama Friedmann, Luigi Rizzi, Sergey Avrutin, Nino Grillo (Grillo 2005) and others). Next we will examine “mirror” pathologies”, that is, cases where language is intact, but general intelligence is affected such as Specific Language Impairment (SLI), Williams Syndrome, Spina Bifida, and the case of the savant Christopher. We will then proceed to the genetics of language in a modern perspective (after the disillusionment of the genome project). We will have a close look at data and theories of epigenetics and suggest possible links with language. Finally we will proceed to another novel and promising avenue of inquiry: We will review the “return of the laws of form” in biology in general and point out interesting parallels with the role of physical, self-organizational and computationally optimal mechanisms found in language at various levels (syllables, prosody, syntactic trees, phases). Promising parallels with the Minimalist Program will be detailed and new ways of approaching the biological foundations of language and language evolution will be offered.

Basic references:
-Chomsky, N. (2009). Opening remarks (pp. 13-43) and Conclusion (pp. 379-409) in Of Minds and Language: A Dialogue with Noam Chomsky in the Basque Country. M. Piattelli-Palmarini, Uriagereka, J. and Salaburu, P., Eds. Oxford, UK and New York, Oxford University Press.

Language deficits
-Friederici, A. D. (2009). Language and the brain (Chapter 22). Of Minds and Language
-Friedmann, N. (2006). “Speech production in Broca's agrammatic aphasia:Syntactic “Tree Pruning”. in Broca's Region. Y. Grodzinsky and K. Amunts (Eds). Oxford UK, Oxford University Press.
-Friedmann, N., A. Belletti and L. Rizzi (2009). "Relativized relatives: Types of
intervention in the acquisition of A-bar dependencies." Lingua 119(1): 67-88

-Grillo, N. (2005). Minimality effects in agrammatic comprehension. Proceedings of ConSOLE XIII: 107-120.

-Grodzinsky, Y. (2000). "The neurology of syntax: Language use without Broca's area." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23: 1-71.
-Grodzinsky, Y. and A. Santi (2008). "The battle for Broca's region." Trends in Cognitive Sciences 12(12): 474-480.

Mirror deficits
-Tsimpli, I.-M. and N. V. Smith (1998). "Modules and quasi-modules: language and the theory of mind in a polyglot savant." Learning and Individual Differences 10:193-215.
-Zukowski, A. (2005). "Knowledge of constraints on compounding in children and adolescents with Williams syndrome." Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research 48(1): 79-83.

Genetics of language and the case of FOXP2
-Benitez-Burraco, A. (2009) Genes y Lenguaje, Editorial Reverté
-Vargha-Khadem, F., D. G. Gadian, et al. (2005). "FOXP2 and the neuroanatomy of speech and language." Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6 (February): 131-138.
-Piattelli-Palmarini, M. and J. Uriagereka (2010 (in press)). A geneticist’s dream, a linguist’s nightmare: The case of FOXP2. Biolingustics Investigations. A. M. Di
-Sciullo and Boeckx, C. (Eds) Oxford University Press Language evolution
-Christiansen, M. H. and N. Chater (2008). "Language as shaped by the brain." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31: 489-558. (see a commentary therein by Tom Bever, Roeland Hancock and MPP)
-Piattelli-Palmarini, M. (2008). "Novel Tools at the Service of Old Ideas (review of Jablonka, Eva & Marion J. Lamb. 2005. Evolution in Four Dimensions. Cambridge,MA: MIT Press.)." Biolinguistics 2.2(3): 236-245.
-Piattelli-Palmarini, M “What is language, that it may have evolved” in: Richard Larson et al, (Eds.) Evolution of Language. CUP (2009, in press)

The Laws of Form
-Medeiros, D. P. (2008). "Optimal Growth in Phrase Structure." Biolinguistics 2.2(3): 152-195.
-Piattelli-Palmarini, M and J. Uriagereka (2008) “Still a bridge too far? Biolinguistic questions for grounding language on brains” Physics of Life Reviews, 5 (4): 207-224
-Soschen, A. (2008). "On the nature of syntax." Biolinguistics 2(2-3): 196-224.
-Turing, Alan. 1952. The chemical basis of morphogenesis. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society of London, vol. B 237, 37-72.
-Uriagereka, J. 1998. Rhyme and Reason: An Introduction to Minimalist Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
-West, G. B., J. H. Brown, and B. J. Enquist. (1999). "The fourth dimension of life: Fractal geometry and allometric scaling of organisms." Science 284 (1677-1679).