Work

From action to language: comparative perspectives on primate tool use, gesture and the evolution of human language

Year: 2011

Type: article

Abstract: The papers in this Special Issue examine tool use and manual gestures in primates as a window on the evolution of the human capacity for language. Neurophysiological research has supported the hypothesis of a close association between some aspects of human action organization and of language representation, in both phonology and semantics. Tool use provides an excellent experimental context to investigate analogies between action organization and linguistic syntax. Contributors report and contextualize experimental evidence from monkeys, great apes, humans and fossil hominins, and consider the nature and the extent of overlaps between the neural representations of tool use, manual gestures and linguistic processes.

Source: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0295

Authors: James Steele, Pier Francesco Ferrari, Leonardo Fogassi

Institutions: University College London, University of Parma, Italian Institute of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Language and cultural evolution

Subfield: Cultural Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council

Awards: G2139760025, The AHRB Research Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity