LINGUIST List 25.2334
Tue
May 27 2014
Review: Cognitive
Science, General Linguistics: Bolhuis and
Everaert (Eds., 2013)
Editor for this issue:
Anja Wanner <anjalinguistlist.org>
Date: 21-Nov-2013
From: Darcy Sperlich
<darcy.sperlich
manukau.ac.nz>
Subject: Birdsong, Speech, and
Language
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Book announced at
http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-1468.html
EDITOR: Johan J. Bolhuis
EDITOR: Martin Everaert
TITLE: Birdsong, Speech, And Language
SUBTITLE: Exploring the Evolution of Mind and
Brain
PUBLISHER: MIT Press
YEAR: 2013
REVIEWER: Darcy Sperlich, Manukau Institute of
Technology
SUMMARY
This books revolves around the theme of what
the study of birdsong can contribute to our
understanding of human language evolution. This
being a very broad topic, the book is divided
into six comprehensive sections,
‘Introduction,’ ‘Acquisition of birdsong and
speech,’ ‘Phonology and syntax,’ ‘Neurobiology
of song and speech,’ ‘Genes, song, speech and
language,’ and finally ‘Evolution of song
speech and language.’ The book begins with a
foreword from Robert C. Berwick and Noam
Chomsky, setting the scene with Aristotle’s
observations on birdsong. They discuss
evolutionary problems along the lines of shared
ancestry versus functional adaptations, and how
this provides insights to the origins of
language. This is then followed by the editors’
preface to the book.
The first chapter of the book is entitled ‘The
design principles of natural language,’ by
Martin Everaert and Riny Huybregts, which is
written as an introduction to non-linguists on
the principles behind the book. They give a
brief overview of what language and generative
grammar is and cover perspectives on the design
principles behind language. The discussion then
turns to that of birdsong, covering arguments
that birdsong has grammar on par with humans.
They conclude briefly on the evolution of
language.
The next chapter entitled ‘Evolution, memory
and the nature of syntactic representation,’ by
Gary F. Marcus, focuses on the psychological
reality of syntactic tree structure in the
brain. He proposes it does exist, linked via
small branches (treelets), not as a single
tree. He divulges into the psychological
aspects (e.g., problems of center-embedding),
arguing for the treelet approach.
The third article, ‘Convergence and deep
homology in the evolution of spoken language,’
by W. Tecumseh Fitch and Daniel Mietchen
focuses on the genetic aspects of language.
They set the background by discussing homology
in evolutionary biology, and then turn to ‘deep
homology’ whereby the genetics over different
species appear to be similar to one another.
One example give is the FOXP2 gene, which is
similar to genes found in mice and other
vertebrates. They point out how such
similarities should not be surprising, and how
research on one species can inform on
another.
Chapter 4 by Erich D. Jarvis, entitled
‘Evolution of brain pathways for vocal learning
in birds and humans,’ focuses on vocal
learning. He points out that while most
vertebrates are capable of auditory learning,
the same is not true of vocal learning. He then
compares various brain structures, and how
legions of the brain affect vocal behaviour.
This is followed by studies on brain activity
and genes. The focus is then shifted to the
auditory system, looking at the evolution of
humans and birds from an earlier ancestor,
proposing a motor theory for vocal learning,
advancing on earlier theories (e.g., Lieberman
2002).
The next book section, ‘Acquisition of birdsong
and speech,’ starts with Sanne Moorman and
Johan J. Bolhuis’ comparisons of just this in
their short article ‘Behavioral similarities
between birdsong and spoken language.’ They go
over the basis of avian vocalisation, drawing
parallels between how birdsong is learnt
compared to language. They discuss sensitive
learning periods in birds akin to the critical
period hypothesis compared to humans, and
finally, syntactic parallels, which they call
into question.
‘Parametric Variation: Language and Birdsong,’
by Neil Smith and Ann Law, looks at what makes
human language unique, compared to birds. They
briefly consider recursion and reject it in
favour of parametric variation (PV, of
Principles and Parameters theory), which is
basically parameter setting (e.g., plus or
minus prodrop). After outlining the theory,
they list 7 criteria of PV. They then move to
birds, comparing and contrasting the crucial
differences humans, in order to see if birds
meet the PV criterion. They find that, while PV
is helpful as a tool, they are unable to
conclude if PV is unique to language.
The next article by Olga Fehér and Ofer
Tchernichovski, called ‘Vocal culture in
songbirds: an experimental approach to cultural
evolution,’ is about vocal cultural evolution
in birds. It is an experimental study where
they isolate zebra finches from the wild and
put them in an isolated colony. Once the
isolated bird has developed its own song, they
then have it ‘tutor’ a younger bird to see what
is learnt, repeating the process with the
younger bird to other younger birds (also to a
group as well). They find over a few
generations the song progresses towards to what
is found in the wild (the analysis is discussed
in detail). They conclude by discussing likely
models of this evolution.
Chapter 8 by Frank Wijnen, ‘Acquisition of
linguistic categories: cross-domain
convergences,’ explores the learning processes
involved in syntax and phonology, arguing that
they are essentially the same using linguistic
definitions as evidence. He covers learning of
phonemes and grammatical categories in
children, proposing the same statistical
learning mechanism underlies their acquisition,
being able to track the quantity of tokens and
their dependencies in a series. He then reviews
evidence in support of this in
neuropsychological studies, noting that motor
skill acquisition is linked with non-linguistic
sequence learning. He concludes by showing how
his research paradigm differs from theories of
similar nature.
The next chapter, ‘Structure in human phonology
and in birdsong: a phonologist’s perspective,’
by Moria Yip, starts the next section called
‘Phonology and syntax.’ She begins by comparing
sounds produced by birds and humans in terms of
phonological structure. This is done over many
species of birds, investigating acoustic,
neurological and behavioural cues. Yip then
investigates how structure arose in birds
(e.g., genetic mutations), exploring five
possibilities. She sums up by suggesting
further areas to gather evidence.
Eric Reuland in ‘Recursivity of language: what
can birds tell us about it?’ focuses on the
centrality of recursion being to human language
(e.g., Hauser et al., 2002). This is discussed
with reference to Minimalism (e.g., Merge),
outlining the human computational system. He
discusses what language needs, and argues for
recursion being a key component. He finally
refers to recent work on the European starling,
arguing that it does not have recursion. He
comes to the conclusion that studying birds
will shed little light on human language
recursion.
From the outset, Kazuo Okanoya in ‘Finite-state
syntax in Bengalese finches: sensorimotor
evidence, developmental processes, and formal
procedures for syntax extraction’ forcefully
argues that birds do not have syntax on par to
humans, but rather a finite state syntax.
Okanoya moves onto the discussion of
segmentation and chunking, asking if birds are
able to perceive and produce in such a manner.
Reviewing experiments across different birds
supported just this, implying a possible
cognitive basis.
In a review article entitled ‘Analyzing the
structure of bird vocalization and language:
finding common ground,’ Carel ten Cate, Robert
Lachlan and Willem Zuidema discuss the methods
used to identify the structure of songs in
birds, and the difficulties posed doing this
across species (also in humans). The authors
then cover the sequence of song and its
complexity – the models used to describe it
with special reference to hidden Markov
models.
Chapter 13, ‘Phonological awareness in grey
parrots: creation of new labels from existing
vocalizations,’ by Irene M. Pepperberg, focuses
on the famous grey parrot Alex (now deceased),
and his colleague, Arthur. The discussion is of
the human-like phonological ability they have,
due to training and simple human language
exposure. The article details the research that
has gone into the two parrots, noting the
developmental difference between them owing to
their differing experimental treatment.
‘The neural basis of links and dissociations
between speech perception and production’, the
14th contribution, by Sophie K. Scott, Carolyn
McGettigan and Frank Eisner, begins the 4th
section of the book, ‘Neurobiology of song and
speech.’ They start by discussing how speech
perception is represented in the brain,
followed by its production, and their relation
to the motor cortex. They finally give a
summary discussion on the processes, arguing
against motor theory of speech perception.
Sharon M. H. Gobes, Jonathan B. Fritz and Johan
J. Bolhuis look into auditory learning
similarities in songbirds and speech learning
in humans, as well as other non-learning
species. They briefly cover the literature,
then move into auditory learning in nonhuman
species, comparing the avian and mammalian
brain. The authors then discuss song locality
in the bird’s brains and also the neural makes
of song memory. They also discuss auditory
memory in humans, finishing the chapter with
the interaction between auditory and vocal
regions, touching on evolutionary matters.
In the 16th chapter of the volume, ‘Age effects
in language acquisition and attrition’,
Christophe Pallier investigates the issues of
language acquisition from an age perspective,
tackling the notion of the critical period
hypothesis. The review shows that the idea of
the brain losing its plasticity is a simplistic
approach. Through reviewing the delay of L1 and
L2 acquisition, to interesting studies on
adopted children growing up in a completely
different L1 environment, points to a complex
matrix yet to be fully understood.
The next paper, ‘A “birdsong perspective” on
human speech production,’ by Hermann Ackermann
and Wolfram Ziegler, compares the avian song
within the brain to human speech production.
They discuss first the similarities between
both (e.g., function) and discuss the area of
the brain connected with song production,
similarly done for humans as well (bringing in
studies on brain damage).
Michale S. Fee and Michael A. Long in ‘Neural
mechanisms underlying the generation of
birdsong: a modular sequential behavior’
investigate the neurology behind song, focusing
specifically on the interaction between RA and
HVC neurons. After reviewing their functions,
the authors move on to two models of song
generation, which make use of these neurons,
discussing how to experimentally investigate
the models and detailing such past experiments
by the authors. They finally consider models of
timing syllable and motif onsets, and compare
them to the data.
The article ‘Auditory-vocal mirror neurons for
learned vocal communication,’ by Jonathan F.
Prather and Richard Mooney, focuses on mirror
neurons in birds. They first discuss the
advantages for looking for mirror neurons in
songbirds, followed by a discussion on songs in
terms of neurons involved and structure in the
brain. They then move into experimental
evidence measuring neuron activity. The most
important point is that HVCX cells appear to be
mirror neurons. The authors finally discuss
HVCX neurons place in perception, learning and
sensorimotor learning, concluding on a
mechanism for auditory-vocal
correspondence.
Chapter 20 entitled ‘Peripheral mechanisms of
vocalization in birds: a comparison with human
speech,’ by Gabriël J. L. Beckers, focuses on
reviewing vocal production by birds and
comparing them to humans. The author discusses
the physical mechanisms behind vocal production
in birds, e.g., the syrinx, which is involved
in the production and modulation of voice. The
voice tract’s production use follows, and
finally suggests future research
directions.
Chapter 21 introduces the next section, ‘Genes,
song, speech and language,’ with a paper titled
‘Building bridges between genes, brains and
language,’ by Simon G. Fisher. He reviews FOXP2
(in italics), focusing on what it is and what
it is not. He covers the discussion of FOXP2
and its links between it and speech – noting
that it cannot be seen as a ‘gene for speech’.
He covers FOXP2’s functions and areas it
affects within the brain, also observing
mutations of a similar gene in mice. He
finishes his article by looking at the gene’s
role in speech evolution.
Constance Scharff and Christopher K. Thompson’s
contribution, ‘A bird’s-eye view of FoxP2,’
relates FoxP2 in Area X. They discuss the gene
in pre- and postnatal development, within
seasonal changes (in canaries) and in general
behaviour. The authors touch upon a variety of
other topics relating to FoxP2, finishing by
looking at the future of genetics and
birds.
Chapter 23, titled ‘Genetic basis of language:
insights from developmental dyslexia,’ by
Franck Ramus, discusses what developmental
dyslexia can show us about genes related to
language. He backgrounds dyslexia and its main
symptoms. He then moves onto the review of gene
studies related to the topic, where evidence
points to genetic problems causing dyslexia. A
similar discussion is given of specific
language disorder, and how it overlaps with
dyslexia.
W. Tecumseh Fitch leads the final section of
the book, ‘Evolution of song, speech and
language,’ with ‘Musical protolanguage:
Darwin’s theory of language evolution
revisited.’ The topic is musical protolanguage
(a term coined by Fitch, but a theory of
Darwin’s). He reviews the hypothesis and draws
parallels to today’s linguistic endeavours. Not
only does he discuss its good points, but also
its difficulties (clashing with modern
linguistics, sexual selection and his
terminology), with Fitch suggesting solutions
to these problems.
Chapter 25, ‘Birdsong as a model of studying
factors and mechanisms affecting signal
evolution,’ by Kazuo Okanoya, provides a
different perspective on birdsong, focusing on
the difference between the Bengalese finch and
white-rumped munia, which share a close genetic
relationship. He covers a variety of
interesting studies which show how different
the two species are in their song abilities. He
concludes on the developmental pathway of
birdsong, and calls for further research.
The final chapter, by Irene M. Pepperberg,
‘Evolution of vocal communication: an avian
model,’ focuses on mirror neurons and their
role played in evolution, touting birds as a
possible missing link in regard to vocal
communication. She covers language evolutionary
theory and discusses the role of mirror
neurons, paralleling bird and human
similarities – all the while looking at what
species could bridge the divide between the
two.
EVALUATION
The first chapter by Everaert and Huybregts
sets the mood of the book, but it should be
noted that the following chapters are not
necessarily in concordance of their views
espoused here. In saying that, however, they do
give consideration to competing thoughts. On
another note, I was partly surprised to see the
Wikipedia reference on language in the text,
which shows how far this encyclopedia has come.
In all, serving as an introduction for
non-linguists, the authors do the job well.
The article by Marcus presents an attractive
idea on treelets, offering courses of research
that could help forward the idea. My only
comment on this idea would be its appeal to
‘sequence sensitive structure’ present (e.g.,
the active and passive), but I wonder how
useful this paradigm would be for free word
order languages, as those found in Australian
aboriginal languages (e.g., Jiwarli; Austin
2001). Also, another area would be that of
reflexives, which a syntactic approach is
concerned with locality, but may run into
difficulty trying to explain long distance
dependencies (e.g., long distance anaphora, cf.
Huang 2000).
The article by Fitch and Mietchen gives an
excellent, accessible overview into why we
should be studying deep homology across
different species, painting a bright future for
this field. I found the discussion on the genes
involved quite clear, and it also acts as a
warm up to the gene related studies presented
later on in the volume.
Chapter 4 by Jarvis gives a thorough look at
vocal learning from the brain and genes, which
is full of references. The topics are well
discussed, and the reader comes away with
up-to-date knowledge on the latest developments
on comparisons between birds and humans. This
chapter again is quite useful pre-reading for
later chapters.
Moorman and Bolhuis in Chapter 5 is straight to
the point in describing parallels between birds
and humans, including syntactic parallels which
is more controversial, the authors acknowledge
(as other articles in the volume also discuss).
If there were syntactic parallels, then this
obviously would end at a very early stage,
otherwise we would expect bird language.
Smith and Law try to answer the question what
makes human language unique by introducing
parametric variation. In the end they are
unable to conclude if parametric variation is
unique to language. While it appears useful as
a tool of language classification, I would
share the authors’ muted conclusion surrounding
the uniqueness of parametric variation to
language, as to me it would seem not to be the
case.
The paper by Fehér and Tchernichovski discusses
how birdsong can become wild-like from an
experimental setting over a few generations,
using objective measures. Cleary, nature and
nurture both have a place in these results.
Wijnen’s look into finding an underlying
mechanism into phonological and syntactic
processes appears very promising on the
evidence provided. Such a proposal would find
opponents (e.g., Wexler 2011) who argue against
statistical learning. Nonetheless, Wijnen’s
work adds more to the debate.
Yip’s article looks at the kinds of structure
in birdsong over many different species, so in
a sense it is more like a meta-analysis. While
the search for structure appears hopeful, this
would need to be investigated deeply in
individual species. Overall, Yip provides a
good perspective on the issues at hand, and
explains concepts clearly to the
non-phonologists.
The article by Reuland presents a Minimalist
solution to the question of the uniqueness of
human language and sums up the perspective
well. Moreover, he does not warrant research
into birdsong for recursion as he believes that
little will be found -- which may be the
case.
Okanoya presents an interesting study on bird
syntax through experiments on perception and
production, making a case for birds’ lack of
recursive syntax, instead having a finite state
grammar. Undoubtedly, such research on a single
species gives the necessary depth on the status
of their syntax, and paints a bright picture
for further research in this area.
Cate et al. provides a useful review of the
literature on the structure of birdsong, and
offers productive steps forward towards a
systematic study of birdsong compared to human
language.
Pepperberg’s article gives an interesting
insight on the phonological acquisition of
Alex, which draws parallels to human
phonological acquisition. While Alex has died,
research continues to be published on his
abilities (e.g., on his mathematical ability,
Pepperberg 2012). Hopefully, other grey parrots
will be able to be similarly raised to provide
collaborating evidence.
Scott et al. provide a methodological
discussion on the literature of speech
perception and production, pointing out that
their supposed similarities of processing is
not reflected by current evidence. The authors
make this point convincingly, for as usual the
picture is often more complicated than earlier
thought -- and it is good that we are digging
deeper into the problem.
Gobes et al. give a state of the art review of
the auditory literature, comparing and
contrasting the avian and mammalian brains. In
all, the review is written well imparting an
objective view on the topic.
Pallier’s contribution brings together L1 and
L2 studies on language acquisition, effectively
showing the problems surrounding the critical
period hypothesis. I was especially interested
in the research on bringing up adopted children
in a new L1 environment, and how much of their
L1 they had lost at a young age.
Ackermann and Ziegler’s contribution gives a
clear picture on the neurological basis of song
in birds and human speech production. Each area
of discussion is written concisely, allowing
the reader to have a clear understanding of the
processes behind these similar systems.
Coming from a linguistic perspective, I found
fascinating Fee and Long’s experimental
methodology of cooling and heating bird brains,
thereby effecting song production, and allowing
inferences to be made on the neurological
mechanisms. Such elaborate experimenting does
nothing but pull us closer to understanding of
bird songs, hopefully transferable in part to
human language.
Prather and Mooney’s discussion links to the
last chapter involving neurons, allowing for
thought in this area to continue unabated. It
is excellent to see that mirror neurons are
being investigated in other species, as it is a
very current topic with implications for
language (e.g. Ramachandran 2011).
Beckers’ chapter is an interesting one that
provides the fundamentals of bird vocalisation.
She points out that different bird species have
different types of vocalisations, needing
further research. The question arises whether
general similarities can be found across
different bird species.
The article by Fisher provides a clear,
systematic review on what the FOXP2 gene is,
careful not to come to premature conclusions.
What I found interesting was the coverage of a
similar gene in mice, yet another species
represented in this volume.
Scharff and Thompson present an
all-encompassing review on FoxP2 in birds, and
give hope to the future of its continued study.
A good feature of this article is the covering
of the variation of FoxP2 at different stages,
showing the levels of FoxP2 expression affects
the behaviour of birds -- which gives a good
functional insight.
Ramus’ discussion on genes and dyslexia
highlights their importance in such disorders,
without forgetting environmental factors. While
it is still yet unclear to which gene(s) are
the main causes of dyslexia, slowly we are
coming closer.
Fitch presents his review of Darwin’s theory on
his 200th anniversary. Indeed, if one is a
proponent of the musical origin of language,
then Darwin rightfully deserves credit as Fitch
argues. The theory itself on the other hand, is
just one among many competing theories of
language evolution.
Okanoya presents a series of reviews which
build up a convincing array of evidence
supporting his scenario presented. I
appreciated the picture of the birds, and their
historical background.
Pepperberg discusses her thoughts on mirror
neurons in relation to humans and birds, most
of which is speculative, but nonetheless
deserves further attention. Moreover, as part
of the articles here on mirror neurons, this
again brings important focus on the phenomena
which I believe holds plenty of promise for
understanding the origins of language.
Evaluating the book as a whole, it is simply a
splendid piece of scholarship. Firstly, the
editors have done a superb job in collating
such excellent scholarship from a range of
authors who are clearly leaders in their
respective fields. Without exception, all
papers are well written, concise and clear to
the point. The amount of different topics is
also outstanding, including the number of
different species covered. The editors are also
to be commended in how the articles relate to
one another, often on similar topics, with each
article feeding off one another. Moreover, the
amount of references the book contains will
certainly assist those that are looking to
enter the field. It is for this reason I would
recommend the book to advanced undergraduates
and beyond, where this book provides an
excellent starting point.
REFERENCES
Austin, Peter K. 2001. Word order in a free
word order language: The case of Jiwarli. In:
Jane Simpson, David Nash, Mary Laughren, Peter
Austin and Barry Alpher (eds.), Forty years on:
Ken Hale and Australian languages. Pp. 205-323.
Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Hauser, Marc, Chomsky, Noam and Fitch, W.
Tecumseh. 2002. The faculty of language: What
is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?
Science 298:1569-1579.
Huang, Yan. 2000. Anaphora. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Lieberman, Philip. 2002. On the nature and
evolution of the neural bases of human
language. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology, 119:36-62.
Pepperberg, Irene M. 2012. Further evidence for
addition and numerical competence by a grey
parrot (Psittacus erithacus). Animal Cognition
15(4):711-717.
Ramachandran, Vilayanur. S. 2011. The tell-tale
brain: Unlocking the mystery of human nature.
London: William Heinemass.
Wexler, Ken. 2011. Grammatical Computation in
the Optional Infinitive Stage. In: Jill de
Villiers and Tom Roeper (eds.), Handbook of
Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition.
Pp. 53-118. Dordrecht: Springer.
Yang, Charles. 2011. Computational Models of
Language Acquisition. In: Jill de Villiers and
Tom Roeper (eds.), Handbook of Generative
Approaches to Language Acquisition. Pp.119-154.
Dordrecht: Springer.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Dr. Darcy Sperlich is currently a senior
lecturer of ESOL in the School of English at
the Manukau Institute of Technology, in
Auckland, New Zealand. His research interests
include the study of pragmatic and syntactic
theories in relation to anaphora (especially
Chinese), experimental linguistic methodology,
second language acquisition, and comparative
Chinese syntactic dialectology.
Page Updated: 27-May-2014