The Interactional Instinct: The Evolution and Acquisition of Language PDF
Preview The Interactional Instinct: The Evolution and Acquisition of Language
The Interactional Instinct This page intentionally left blank The Interactional Instinct The Evolution and Acquisition of Language Namhee Lee Lisa Mikesell Anna Dina L. Joaquin Andrea W. Mates John H. Schumann 1 2009 3 OxfordUniversityPress,Inc.,publishesworksthatfurther OxfordUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellence inresearch,scholarship,andeducation. Oxford NewYork Auckland Cape Town DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright©2009byOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NewYork10016 www.oup.com OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Theinteractionalinstinct:theevolutionandacquisition oflanguage/NamheeLee...[etal.]. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferences. ISBN978-0-19-538424-6;978-0-19-538423-9(pbk.) 1. Languageacquisition. 2. Languageandlanguages—Origin. 3. Socialinteraction. I. Lee,Namhee,1961– P118.I493 2009 4010.93—dc22 2008036807 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica onacid-freepaper Preface This book is the product of an ongoing research program conducted by the NeurobiologyofLanguageResearchGroup(NLRG),whichispartofthegraduate program in applied linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Studentsinthisgrouparetrainedinlinguistics,conversationalanalysis,neuro- biology,evolution,languageacquisition,andcomplexadaptivesystemstheory. Each master’s degree student completes a thesis, and in the doctoral program, studentswritetwoqualifyingpapersthatmustbejudgedbytwofacultyadvisers to be of publishable quality; additionally, of course, the PhD students write doctoral dissertations. The NLRG has been able to organize these academic projectsintocoauthoredbooks.Thefirstvolumeintheseries,TheNeurobiology ofLearning:Perspectives fromSecond LanguageAcquisition,byJohnH.Schu- mann,ScheilaE.Crowell,NancyE.Jones,NamheeLee,SaraAnnSchuchert,and Lee Alexandra Wood, was published in 2004. The Interactional Instinct is the series’secondvolume.ItsfirsttwochaptersarebasedonNamheeLee’sdoctoral dissertation,andchapters3,4,and5arebasedonqualifyingpaperswrittenby Lisa Mikesell, Anna Dina L. Joaquin, and Andrea W. Mates. Chapter 6 was prepared by Andrea W. Mates and Namhee Lee, and the concluding chapter waswrittenbyJohnH.Schumann. AframeworkforthebookemergedfromcoursestaughtbySchumannonthe neurobiology of language, the evolution of language, and the acquisition of languagebetween2003and2006.Thematerialinthebook,beyondbeingvetted foracademicrequirements,wasalsotaughtbytheauthorsasaninterdisciplinary course for the Center for Culture, Brain, and Development at UCLA and was presentedasacolloquiumatthe2007conferenceoftheAmericanAssociationfor AppliedLinguistics.Wehaveincorporatedintothetexttheveryvaluablefeed- backwereceivedfromparticipantsinthesevenues. vi Preface Thelong-termgoaloftheNLRGistounderstandhowbrainsinteract.Cogni- tivescienceinitsvariousmanifestations—thestudyoflinguistics,psychology, andthebrain—hastraditionallyoperatedunderadeficitofperspective.Eachof these subfields has had as its focus the isolated language user, the isolated learner,andtheisolatedbrain.Throughoutevolution,though,thegreatestselec- tivepressureonbrainshaslikelybeenotherbrains.Humanbrainsareequipped tointeractwithotherbrains,anditisinthisinteractionthatmentalcapacitiesare revealed. But such interaction has been largely ignored in all sciences of the mind. Oneareaoflinguisticsinwhichtheisolatedspeaker/hearerhasnotbeenthe focus of study has been conversational analysis. Here, multiperson interaction hasbeenstudiedinminutedetail.Andrecently,inneuroscience,thediscovery of mirror neurons has allowed brain scientists to begin to understand how individualsresonatewitheachotherbiologically.Certainneuronsbecomeactive whenanindividualperformsanactionandwhenheorsheobservesthataction performed by another person. When subjects observe actions performed by others, motorprograms in theirbrains thatcorrespond to those movementsare activated. Indeed, when one listens to someone else speaking, activations are generatedinthelistener’stongueandlipsinresponsetothemouthmovements and sounds produced by the speaker. Thus, there is a biology-subserving reso- nancebetweenindividualsastheyinteract. Such interaction is the focus of this book. We explore how interaction produces grammatical structure in evolutionary time and how innate mecha- nisms for bonding, attachment, and affiliation ensure that children engage in sufficientandappropriateinteractionstoguaranteelanguageacquisition. Acknowledgments Wewanttoexpressourappreciationtothescholarswhogaveusguidanceaswe wrote this book: Lyle Bachman, Charles Goodwin, Patricia Greenfield, Robert Kersner, Diane Larsen-Freeman, Arnold Scheibel, Dan Seigel, Michael Smith, and Hongyin Tao. In addition, we want to thank the members of the Westside NeuroscienceStudyGroup—HarveyKarp,ValeryKrupnik,HansMiller,Regina Pally, Sara Ann Schuchert, and Leon Sones—who commented on the whole book. We would also like to acknowledge the support of the Foundation for Psycho-CulturalResearchandtheUCLACenterforCulture,Brain,andDevelop- mentfortheopportunitytoteachthismaterialduringaninterdisciplinarysemi- narinthespringof2006. Finally,wewouldliketothankElinorOchsforsuggestingtheterm“interac- tionalinstinct”indiscussionsoflanguageandlanguageacquisitioninthemid- 1990s. This page intentionally left blank Contents Introduction:Overview,3 1. GrammarasaComplexAdaptiveSystem,11 2. EvidenceforLanguageEmergence,29 3. TheImplicationsofInteractionfortheNatureofLanguage,55 4. InteractionalReadiness:Infant-CaregiverInteractionandthe UbiquityofLanguageAcquisition,108 5. ANeurobiologyfortheInteractionalInstinct,151 6. TheInteractionalInstinctinPrimary-andSecond-LanguageAcquisition,167 Conclusion:BroaderImplicationsoftheInteractionalInstinct,187 References,195 Index,223
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