?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=Motor+theory+of+language+origin%3A+The+diversity+of+languages&rft.creator=Allott%2C+Robin+Michael&rft.subject=Evolution&rft.subject=Comparative+Linguistics&rft.subject=Behavioral+Neuroscience&rft.description=The+motor+theory+proposes+that+the+complex+semantic%2C+syntactic+and+phonetic+%0Astructures+of+language+developed+from+a+pre-existing+complex+system%2C+more+%0Aspecifically+the+pre-existing+motor+system.+Language+thus+emerged+as+an+external+%0Aphysical+expression+of+the+neural+basis+for+movement+control.+Features+which+%0Amade+a+wide+range+of+skilled+actions+possible+--+a+set+of+elementary+motor+%0Asubprograms+together+with+rules%2C+expressed+in+neural+organisation%2C+for+combining+%0Asubprograms+into+extended+action-sequences+--+were+transferred+to+form+a+%0Aparallel+set+of+programs+and+rules+for+speech+and+language.+The+already+%0Aestablished+integration+of+motor+control+with+perceptual+organisation+led+%0Adirectly+to+a+systematic+relation+between+language+and+the+externally-perceived+%0Aworld.+But+if+language+originated+in+the+establishment+of+new+brain+connections+%0Abetween+the+organisation+of+motor+control+and+perception+on+the+one+hand+and+the+%0Aneural+and+physiological+systems+involved+in+language+on+the+other%2C+how+is+it+%0Athat+as+far+back+as+can+be+traced+there+has+been+a+multiplicity+of+different+%0Alanguages%2C+with+different+phonological+systems%2C+different+lexicons+and+different+%0Agrammatical+(syntactic+and+morphological)+structures%3F+Because+of+these+%0Adifferences%2C+de+Saussure%2C+Bloomfield+and+most+linguists+have+concluded%2C+or+%0Aassumed%2C+that+languages+must+be+arbitary+constructs%2C+certainly+as+regards+their+%0Alexicons%2C+and+that+there+can+be+no+direct+relation+between+the+sound-structures+%0Aof+languages+and+the+external+world.+The+paper+examines+ways+in+which+a+%0Areconciliation+can+be+made+between+the+hypothesis+of+a+biological+(physiological+%0Aand+neurological)+process+of+language+evolution+and+the+observed+diversity+of+%0Alanguages.+&rft.publisher=John+Benjamins&rft.contributor=Wind%2C+Jan&rft.contributor=Jonker%2C+Abraham&rft.contributor=Allott%2C+Robin&rft.contributor=Rolfe%2C+Leonard&rft.date=1994&rft.type=Book+Chapter&rft.type=NonPeerReviewed&rft.format=text%2Fhtml&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F3286%2F1%2Fdiversty.htm&rft.identifier=++Allott%2C+Robin+Michael++(1994)+Motor+theory+of+language+origin%3A+The+diversity+of+languages.++%5BBook+Chapter%5D+++++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F3286%2F