LINGUIST List 12.1764

Mon Jul 9 2001

Books: Language & Evolution

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Robin Allott, Language & Evolution: The Great Mosaic Eye by Robin Allott

THE GREAT MOSAIC EYE: LANGUAGE AND EVOLUTION
Robin Allott

The mosaic eye of the dragonfly has 28000 ommatidia, 28000 micro-eyes. 
Throughout humanity we have thousands of millions of eyes looking
out on the single world, the single universe. The integrating
processes, which in the insect are the result of the organisation of
its nervous system, are constituted for humans by the development of 
language, language as a system for externalising the contents of each
individual's brain and, with the invention of writing, enabling
information to be transmitted over time as well as over space. The
central force operating in the evolution of human culture has been
language and all forms of communication derived from language.

The source of this power of language, both in its origin and in its
current functioning, is the direct relation of language to human
physiological and neurological complexity. The perceptuo-motor theory
of language origin proposes that language in its evolutionary origin, in
its processes of development and change and in its current functioning
is not an arbitrary system; it was constructed directly on and from the
pre-existing complexity of the human brain, from pre-existing
organisation of the perceptual and motor systems. Motor control has the
central role in all behaviour; language is an important segment of
behaviour; it is itself action and is integrated with perception and
bodily action.

Language has been the foundation for morality, social cohesion and
continuity, religion, science, law, philosophy. Language made possible
both the development of the individual consciousness - we use words to
become aware of ourselves - and also of the social consciousness. In
society language plays a central role; it forms within the individual,
within the group, a sense of the cohesion of the group. It creates
within each individual images of the group, of the nation, and
ultimately of humanity as a whole. The great mosaic eye of humanity
formed through language makes it possible for us to investigate our
past and speculate on the future, the future of the evolutionary
process of which humanity forms a part.

CONTENTS

LANGUAGE AND THE MOTOR THEORY:
Outline of the theory
Aspects of the motor theory
APPLICATIONS OF THE MOTOR THEORY:
Semiosis
Autism
Articulatory basis of the alphabet
EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY AND LANGUAGE:
The Pythagorean Perspective The arts and sociobiology
Towards the antheap, the drugged society or?
Evolutionary significance of human life?
AUDIOVISUAL APPENDIX

The Great Mosaic Eye
ISBN 1 85776 600 8 Book Guild.
Cloth pp. 228 + CD animation insert
30 GBP + p.&p.
To place order: email infobookguild.co.uk
or mail to:
BOOK GUILD LIMITED
Temple House, 25 High Street
Lewes, East Sussex, England

Robin Allott email: rmallottpercepp.demon.co.uk
 http://www.percepp.demon.co.uk