Protomusic and protolanguage as alternatives to protosign

William Tecumseh Sherman Fitch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Explaining the transition from a signed to a spoken protolanguage is a major problem for all gestural theories. I suggest that Arbib's unproved "beyond the mirror" hypothesis still leaves this core problem unsolved, and that Darwin's model of musical protolanguage provides a more compelling solution. Second, although I support Arbib's analytic theory, of language origin, his claim that this transition is purely cultural seems unlikely, given its early, robust development in children.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)132-133
Number of pages11
JournalBehavioral and Brain Sciences
Volume28
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2005

Keywords

  • TURSIOPS-TRUNCATUS
  • VOCAL MIMICRY

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