PSYCH 3F03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Endocast, Parsing, Vocal Tract
16 Nov 2016
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Things used for language that didn"t evolve for language. Digestion (eating food gives you the energy to speak) Circulation (i. e. you can"t talk if you are dead) Some people think recursion evolved specifically for language (when something is defined by itself: they are probably wrong, most people disagree because recursion used in non-language contexts among humans and by other animals. In math and computer science, it is when something is defined by itself. Fib (n): = fib(n-1) + fib (n-2) . In language it is more like a sentence embedded in another sentence. Hilary clinton thinks that donald trump is racist. Donald trump is racist is embedded in the sentence: ababab not recursive, aaabbb recursive because a[a(ab)b]b. Proper word order is required for language. Is speech special: other animals can distinguish human phonation fmri of dog brains shows they can distinguish tone and content of speech. Seal vocalizations are produced via the larynx.
