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The tip of the language iceberg

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2014

Peter Ford Dominey
Peter Ford Dominey*
Affiliation:
Robot Cognition Laboratory, INSERM U846 Stem Cell andBrain Research Institute, 69675 Bron, France. E-mail: Peter.dominey@inserm.fr
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Abstract

Arbib's How the brain got language is a major achievement in defining a trajectory for the evolution of complex imitation and the language-ready brain leading to human language. In addition to these capabilities, I will suggest that it is useful to consider two additional components of human brain function that are intricately related to the emergence of language. These are, first, the profound human motivation to represent and share the psychological states of others, and second, the related complex semantic system that represents the contents of what is communicated in language. In this sense, these two components represent part of what is under the iceberg, where language is the emerging tip.

Keywords

social interactionsemantics
Type
The mystery of motivation
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 5 , Issue 2-3: Special Issue , September 2013 , pp. 177 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2013

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