ausblenden:
Schlagwörter:
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Zusammenfassung:
Given the diversity of languages, it is unlikely that the human capacity for language
resides in rich universal syntactic machinery. More likely, it resides centrally in the
capacity for vocal learning combined with a distinctive ethology for communicative
interaction, which together (no doubt with other capacities) make diverse languages
learnable. This chapter focuses on face-to-face communication, which is characterized
by the mapping of sounds and multimodal signals onto speech acts and which
can be deeply recursively embedded in interaction structure, suggesting an interactive
origin for complex syntax. These actions are recognized through Gricean intention
recognition, which is a kind of “ mirroring” or simulation distinct from the classic
mirror neuron system. The multimodality of conversational interaction makes evident
the involvement of body, hand, and mouth, where the burden on these can be shifted,
as in the use of speech and gesture, or hands and face in sign languages. Such shifts
having taken place during the course of human evolution. All this suggests a slightly
different approach to the mystery of music, whose origins should also be sought in
joint action, albeit with a shift from turn-taking to simultaneous expression, and with
an affective quality that may tap ancient sources residual in primate vocalization. The
deep connection of language to music can best be seen in the only universal form of
music, namely song.
