118 research outputs found
Buone idee per la mente. I fondamenti cognitivi ed evolutivi della cultura
No full textSecondo una concezione largamente prevalente nella storia del pensiero, nonché fortemente radicata nel senso comune, natura e cultura sono due realtà opposte e separate. L’idea, in effetti, è che le straordinarie capacità culturali che caratterizzano la nostra specie abbiano permesso agli umani di affrancarsi dal mondo naturale. In polemica con tale idea, che accorda un ruolo primario alla natura culturale – la parte considerata più nobile – rispetto a quella animale degli esseri umani, in questo libro l’autrice propone un’indagine naturalistica della cultura. Analizzando i processi alla base della trasmissione delle credenze culturali in generale, e delle credenze religiose nello specifico, in Buone idee per la mente. I fondamenti cognitivi ed evolutivi della cultura Ines Adornetti mostra come tali processi siano fortemente radicati nei nostri dispositivi mentali: la trasmissione e l’acquisizione della cultura sono fortemente vincolate dal modo in cui funziona la cognizione. Considerare in questi termini la cultura è aderire alla svolta evoluzionistica della scienza cognitiva contemporanea: un modo per dar conto in termini naturalistici del tema della natura umana
Introducing Evolutionary Pragmatics. How Language Emerges from Use
No full textThis collection highlights a range of perspectives on the emerging body of research on evolutionary pragmatics, expanding the borders of language evolution research and indicating exciting new directions for the future of the field. The volume adopts a broad view of pragmatics, providing a counterpoint to classical models of language evolution by exploring the ways in which the origins of language can be traced through the emergence of language structures from use in context. The book synthesizes different lines of inquiry, ranging from evolutionary linguistics to cognitive linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive pragmatics, among other fields, which foreground the impact of the environment on language and of language, through speaker use, on context. The volume is organized around three sections, each taking in turn a different dimension of evolutionary pragmatics research; the origins of language as seen in animal communication; a closer look at the use of language in interaction for the formation of communication channel and linguistic meaning; the role of cooperation and competition dynamics for the emergence of language structure. This book will be of particular interest to scholars in evolutionary linguistics, language origins, cognitive pragmatics, cognitive archaeology, and cognitive semiotics, as well as related areas in philosophy, psychology, and anthropology
Why philosophical pragmatics needs clinical pragmatics
No full textThis paper aims to show how clinical pragmatics (the study of pragmatic
deficits) can fruitfully inform the classical theoretical models proposed
by philosophical pragmatics. In the first part of the paper I argue that
theories proposed in the domain of philosophical pragmatics, as those
elaborated by Austin and Grice, are not plausible from a cognitive point
of view and that for this reason they cannot be useful to understand
pragmatic deficits. In the second part, I show that Relevance Theory
overcomes this limitation (being consistent with the data about actual
mind’s functioning), but I also argue that it offers a restricted view of
human communication which has to be integrated with a model of
language use that takes into account a central pragmatic property:
coherence of discourse
Recensione di Chiera A. Appesi a un filo. La comunicazione in bilico tra comprensione e fraintendimento
No full textMaking Tools and Planning Discourse: the Role of Executive Functions in the Origin of Language
No full textIn this article we propose that executive functions play a key role in the origin of language. Our proposal is based on the methodological assumption that some of the cognitive systems involved in language functioning are also involved in its phylogenetic origin. In this regard, we demonstrate that a key property of language functioning is discourse coherence. Such property is not dependent on grammatical elements but rather is processed by cognitive systems that are not specific for language, namely the executive functions systems of action planning, control and organization. Data from cognitive archaeology on the making of stone tools show that the processes requested to produce Prehistoric tools imply action organization operations similar to those involved in the processing of coherence. Based on these considerations, we propose that executive functions represent the link between stone tool making and language origins and suggest that they allowed our ancestors to develop forms of proto-discourse governed by coherence
On the Phylogenesis of Executive Functions and their Connection with Language Evolution
No full textAccording to some models, Executive Functions (EFS) appeared 150,000 years ago in connection with the advent of language grammar.By reviewing studies coming from Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology(ECA), I suggest that Executive Functions evolved in the context of toolmaking before the appearance of Homo sapiens. By virtue of this, I treat the issue of the relationship between EFs and language evolution in a different manner to the models that assigned a prominent role to grammar. I hypothesize that language could have had a narrative origin and that the study of the evolution of EFs together with the investigation of the role of EFs in language processing can corroborate this hypothesis
Le afasie di Broca e di Wernicke alla luce delle moderne neuroscienze cognitive
No full textAl centro di questo lavoro è l’analisi di due disturbi acquisiti del linguaggio: l’afasia di Broca e l’afasia di Wernicke. Tradizionalmente, tali disturbi sono stati interpretati come deficit che colpiscono le funzioni legate, rispettivamente, alla produzione articolatoria e alla comprensione del parlato in seguito a lesioni in due specifiche regioni cerebrali: nel caso dell’afasia di Broca, la terza circonvoluzione frontale sinistra; nel caso dell’afasia di Wernicke, la porzione posteriore del giro temporale superiore sinistro. Per tale ragione, queste due regioni cerebrali, a cui ci si riferisce anche nei termini di area di Broca e area di Wernicke, sono state considerate le sedi neuroanatomiche della produzione e comprensione del linguaggio. Questo articolo mostra che, alla luce delle ricerche condotte negli ultimi decenni: a) non è più possibile sul piano dei deficit linguistici continuare a considerare l’afasia di Broca e l’afasia di Wernicke come disturbi unitari; b) non è più possibile continuare a sostenere l’esclusiva localizzazione delle funzioni di produzione e comprensione del linguaggio nelle due regioni cerebrali ad esse classicamente associate
Deficit del discorso e della conversazione: il caso dei traumi cranio-encefalici e della demenza di Alzheimer.
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