The Biology of Language
Suggested Reading (Books)
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Jeremy Bentham
a. Fictions
Derek Bickerton
a. Language and Human Behavior.
b. Language and Species.*
Bickerton and Calvin
a. Lingua Ex Machina.
William Calvin
a. The Cerebral Code: Thinking a Thought in the Mosaics of the
Mind.*
b. The Cerebral Symphony.
c. How Brains Think.
d. A Brain for all Seasons: Human Evolution & Abrupt Climate
Change.
Michael C. Corballis
a. From Hand to Mouth: the origins of language.
Terence Deacon
a. The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the
Brain.
Gould, Stephen Jay
a. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory.
Paul Grice
a. Studies in the Way of Words.
i. Logic and Conversation
Ray Jackendoff
a. Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar,
Evolution.
Philip Lieberman
a. The Biology and Evolution of Language.*
b. Eve Spoke: Human Language and Human Evolution.
c. Human Language and our Reptilian Brain.
d. Uniquely Human: The Evolution of Speech, Thought, and
Selfless Behavior.
John Locke
a. On language (Bk 3 of the Essay)
Horne Tooke
a. The Diversions of Purley
Christopher Wills
a. The Runaway Brain: The Evolution of Human Uniqueness.
M.C. Diamond et al.
15.
a. The Human Brain Coloring Book.
Adrienne Zihlman
a. The Human Evolution Coloring Book.
Term Paper Topics
1.
The language of X from a biological point of view (for X = Ethics,
or Mind, or Religion autc.), and the possibility of philosophical
success. Please propose other topics, within your own specialized
interests, if you care to do so.
Needed Presentations
1.
2.
Lieberman on human speech
Calvin on the cerebral cortex
Other Materials
Numerous papers can be downloaded in .pdf format from the LLEP
website. Other materials will be circulated to the class maillist in .pdf
format. Photocopied material will be distributed.