TY  - GEN
ID  - cogprints3269
UR  - http://cogprints.org/3269/
A1  - Allott, Robin
Y1  - 1991///
N2  -   This paper amplifies and at certain points extends the account of the motor 
  theory given previously. The semantic, syntactic and phonetic structures of 
  language developed on the basis of a complex pre-existing system. More 
  specifically, the structures of language were a transfer from or a calque of 
  the structures of the pre-existing motor system. The motor system had 
  developed in terms of neural motor programs controlling the different 
  categories of movement. The motor programs were formed from a limited set of 
  basic subroutines which in combination could be used to produce an open-ended 
  and essentially infinite range of actions. The development of language made 
  use of these pre-existing subroutines into extended programs. By way of the 
  motor patterning imposed on the anatomical features which went to form the 
  articulatory system, language emerged as an external physical expression of 
  the physiological and neurological basis for movement control. Movement 
  control was already necessarily closely integrated with the parallel system 
  for the processing and control of perception. Language thus acquired the 
  ability to express the range and inter-relations of perceptual content.
PB  - John Benjamins
KW  - language origin
KW  -  mosaic evolution
KW  -  speech sounds
KW  -  motor programs
KW  -  motor control robotic
KW  -  cross-modal
KW  -  articulation
TI  - The motor theory of language
SP  - 123
AV  - public
EP  - 157
ER  -