The Cambridge Handbook of Biolinguistics

About this book

Biolinguistics involves the study of language from a broad perspective that embraces natural sciences, helping us better to understand the fundamentals of the faculty of language. The Cambridge Handbook of Biolinguistics offers the most comprehensive state-of-the-field survey of the subject available. A team of prominent scholars working in a variety of disciplines is brought together to examine language development, language evolution and neuroscience, as well as providing overviews of the conceptual landscape of the field.

The Cambridge Handbook of Biolinguistics includes work at the forefront of contemporary research devoted to the evidence for a language instinct, the critical period hypothesis, grammatical maturation, bilingualism, the relation between mind and brain and the role of natural selection in language evolution. It will be welcomed by graduate students and researchers in a wide range of disciplines, including linguistics, evolutionary biology and cognitive science.

Contents

1. Introducing the volume Kleanthes K. Grohmann and Cedric Boeckx
2. Biolinguistics - a historical perspective Lyle Jenkins
3. Biolinguistics yesterday, today and tomorrow Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini
4. The philosophical foundations of biolinguistics James McGilvray

Part I. Language Development
5. (Evidence for) the language instinct Ianthi Maria Tsimpli
6. Sensitive phases in successive language acquisition: the critical period hypothesis revisited Jurgen M. Meisel
7. Discovering word forms and word meanings: the role of phrasal prosody and function words Severine Millotte, Elodie Cauvet, Perrine Brusini and Anne Christophe
8. Luria's biolinguistic suggestion and the growth of language Ken Wexler
9. Parameters in language acquisition Lisa Pearl and Jeffrey Lidz
10. Bilingualism beyond language: on the impact of bilingualism on executive control Mireia Hernandez, Clara D. Martin, Nuria Sebastian-Galles and Albert Costa

Part II. Mind, Brain, Behavior
11. The role of experimental syntax in an integrated cognitive science of language Jon Sprouse and Diogo Almeida
12. Working memory and language processing: theory, data and directions for future research Matthew Wagers and Brian McElree
13. Computational primitives in phonology and their neural correlates Philip J. Monahan, Ellen F. Lau and William J. Idsardi
14. Computational primitives in syntax and possible brain correlates Matthias Schlesewsky and Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky
15. Computational primitives in morphology and possible brain correlates Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky and Matthias Schlesewsky
16. Grounding the cognitive neuroscience of semantics in linguistic theory Liina Pylkkanen, Jonathan Brennan and Douglas Bemis
17. Modularity and descent with modification Gary F. Marcus, Cristina D. Rabaglia and Hugh Rabagliati
18. The role of Broca's area in language function Gregory Hickok
19. Lexical retrieval and breakdown in aphasia and developmental language impairment Naama Friedmann, Michal Biran and Dror Dotan
20. Genetics of language: roots of specific language deficits Antonio Benitez-Burraco

Part III. Language Evolution
21. The cognitive capacities of non-human primates Klaus Zuberbuhler
22. Birdsong for biolinguistics Kazuo Okanoya
23. Language, culture and computation: an adaptive systems approach to biolinguistics Simon Kirby
24. Language and natural selection Derek Bickerton
25. The fossils of language: what are they? who has them? how did they evolve? Sergio Balari, Antonio Benitez-Burraco, Victor M. Longa and Guillermo Lorenzo

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Biography

Cedric Boeckx is ICREA Research Professor at the Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies and member of the linguistics department at the University of Barcelona. Kleanthes K. Grohmann is Associate Professor of Biolinguistics at the University of Cyprus and Director of the Cyprus Acquisition Team.