Theoria

Revista de teoría, historia y fundamentos de la ciencia.

An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science

Euskal Herriko Unibertsitateko Argitalpen Zerbitzua/Servicio Editorial de la Universidad del País Vasco.

Vol. 20/3, No 54, 2005

SECCION MONOGRAFICA

Language and thought: empirical and conceptual viewpoints

Guest Editors: Juan-José Acero-Fernández, Francisco Rodríguez-Consuegra

Francisco Rodríguez-Consuegra (Valencia), Juan-José Acero-Fernández (Granada): Presentation

BIBLID [0495-4548 (2005) 20: 54; pp. 247-253]

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Andy Clark (Edimburgo): Word, Niche and Super-Niche: How Language Makes Minds Matter More

BIBLID [0495-4548 (2005) 20: 54; pp. 255-268]

ABSTRACT: How does language (spoken or written) impact thought? One useful way to approach this important but elusive question may be to consider language itself as a cognition-enhancing animal-built structure. To take this perspective is to view language as a kind of self-constructed cognitive niche. These self-constructed cognitive niches play, I suggest, three distinct but deeply interlocking roles in human thought and reason. Working together, these three interlocking routines radically transform the human mind, and mark a genuine discontinuity in the space of animal minds.

Key words: niche construction, cognitive niche, cognition-enhancing structure

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Terrence W. Deacon (Berkeley, California): Language as an Emergent Function: Some Radical Neurological and Evolutionary Implications

BIBLID [0495-4548 (2005) 20: 54; pp. 269-286]

ABSTRACT: Language is a spontaneously evolved emergent adaptation, not a formal computational system. Its structure does not derive from either innate or social instruction but rather self-organization and selection. Its quasi-universal features emerge from the interactions among semiotic constraints, neural processing limitations, and social transmission dynamics. The neurological processing of sentence structure is more analogous to embryonic differentiation than to algorithmic computation. The biological basis of this unprecedented adaptation is not located in some unique neurological structure nor the result of any single mutation, but is vested in the synergistic interaction of numerous coevolved neurological biases and social dynamics.

Key words: coevolution, emergence, self-organization, semiotics, differentiation, neural development

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Christopher Gauker (Cincinnati): On the Evidence for Prelinguistic Concepts

BIBLID [0495-4548 (2005) 20: 54; pp. 287-297]

ABSTRACT: Language acquisition is often said to be a process of mapping words into pre-existing concepts. If that is right, then we ought to be able to obtain experimental evidence for the existence of concepts in prelinguistic children. One line of research that attempts to provide such evidence is the work of Paul Quinn, who claims that looking-time results show that four-month old infants form “category representations”. This paper argues that Quinn’s results have an alternative explanation. A distinction is drawn between conceptual thought and the perception of comparative similarity relations, and it is argued that Quinn’s results can be explained in terms of the latter rather than the former.

Keywords: concept acquisition, language learning, similarity

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John A. Lucy (Chicago): Through the Window of Language: Assessing the Influence of Language Diversity on Thought

BIBLID [0495-4548 (2005) 20: 54; pp. 299-309]

ABSTRACT: The way we understand language diversity, how languages differ in representing reality, affects our approach to understanding linguistic relativity, how that diversity affects thought. Historically, researchers divided over whether the diverse representations of reality across languages were natural or conventional, but all tacitly assumed an optimal fit between language and reality. Twentieth century anthropological linguists interested in linguistic relativity have questioned this assumption and sought to characterize “reality” without it by using domain- or structure-centered approaches. Arguments are presented favoring structure-centered approaches, along with a case illustration. A concluding discussion emphasizes the broader significance of language diversity in human development.

Key words: language and thought, Sapir-Whorf, linguistic relativity, language development, number marking

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Sue Savage-Rumbaugh (Iowa, Estados Unidos), William M. Fields (Iowa, Estados Unidos), Par Segerdahl (Uppsala, Suecia) y Duane Rumbaugh (Iowa, Estados Unidos): Culture Prefigures Cognition in Pan/Homo Bonobos

BIBLID [0495-4548 (2005) 20: 54; pp. 311-328]

ABSTRACT: This article questions traditional experimental approaches to the study of primate cognition. Because of a widespread assumption that cognition in non-human primates is genetically encoded and “natural,” these approaches neglect how profoundly apes’ cultural rearing experiences affect test results. We describe how three advanced cognitive abilities – imitation, theory of mind and language – emerged in bonobos maturing in a bi-species Pan/Homo culture, and how individual rearing differences led to individual forms of these abilities. These descriptions are taken from a rich ethnographic material, and we argue for the scientific superiority of participant-based ethnographic studies of primate cognition in shared Pan/Homo cultures.

Key words: primate cognition, imitation, theory of mind, language, culture, ethnography

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Stuart G. Shanker (York, Canadá) y Stanley I. Greenspan (Washington, D.C.): The Role of Affect in Language Development

BIBLID [0495-4548 (2005) 20: 54; pp. 329-343]

ABSTRACT: This paper presents the Functional/Emotional approach to language development, which explains the process leading up to the core capacities necessary for language (e.g., pattern-recognition, joint attention); shows how this process leads to the formation of internal symbols; and how it shapes and is shaped by the child’s development of language. The heart of this approach is that, through a series of affective transformations, a child develops these core capacities and the capacity to form meaningful symbols. Far from being a sudden jump, the transition from pre-symbolic communication to language is enabled by the advances taking place in the child’s affective gesturing.

Key words: Functional/Emotional hypothesis; affective transformations; usage-based linguistics; pattern-recognition; joint attention; learning-based interactions; nativism; autism

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ARTICULOS

Charles Sayward (Lincoln, Nebraska): Steiner versus Wittgenstein: Remarks on Differing Views of Mathematical Truth

BIBLID [0495-4548 (2005) 20: 54; pp. 347-352]

ABSTRACT: Mark Steiner criticizes some remarks Wittgenstein makes about Gödel. Steiner takes Wittgenstein to be disputing a mathematical result. The paper argues that Wittgenstein does no such thing. The contrast between the realist and the demonstrativist concerning mathematical truth is examined. Wittgenstein is held to side with neither camp. Rather, his point is that a realist argument is inconclusive.

Key words: Mark Steiner, Gödel, Wittgenstein, Juliet Floyd, realism, mathematical truth, provability.