Motor Theory of Language Origin and Evolution
by Robin Allott
There is considerable experimental evidence, and considerable theoretical coherence, for the view that there is a fundamental relation between the syntax of language and physiological syntax, the syntaxes of action and perception, that the syntax of language is biologically based.
...language currently in use is analogous to skilled motor action
The group of premotor neurons can participate in more than one behaviour and constitute what is described as a polymorphic network. A polymorphic network is one that can be organised into multiple states or configurations called circuits. Each circuit may involve the entire set of neurons within the network or some subset of them; each circuit can be transformed into the others so that the network can adopt any one of its different states. Pattern generation emerges as a property of the network as a whole. The ability of the network to generate patterned activity depends upon the interaction of both the synaptic connectivity and the intrinsic cellular properties of each neuron. The command function is viewed not only as initiating action but also as instructional, serving to organise the network into an appropriate configuration to generate a particular motor pattern, as well as selecting and activating the motor system. The individual expression of the subcircuits in the network is dependent upon both the type of initial stimulus and the internal state of the animal; this points to a new concept of network plasticity.
Language is a form of action
...it appears probable that our ancestors had the potential for discriminating speech sounds we now use before they could produce them; there is evidence that human speech perception employs prelinguistic abilities shared with other animals to distinguish between phonemic groupings
...in mammals, there is some natural categorical system, by no means necessarily an auditory one, which has served as the basis for the construction of human phonemic speech production and speech perception. In the monkey and in the chinchilla, as well as in the infant, the sounds heard are referred back to a system which is organised so as to distinguish between certain categories of sound, essentially to some neuronal assembly which analyses in a uniform way. What could the nature of this analysing device be? The proposal in this paper is that the common element is generalised motor patterns, motor programs. The motor programs for producing phonemic sounds are derived from the primitive motor programs for producing bodily movement generally, diverted to producing movement of the organs of articulation.
Syntax is not inherent in the words employed or ideas to be expressed. It is a generalised pattern imposed upon the specific acts as they occur...
Curiously, this theory could be presented as a return, at a deeper level, to earlier ideas on the essentially motor basis of brain processes, though Watson of course had an over-simplified and incorrect view of the real complexities involved in motor organisation. Two final reflections: "language is the immediate actuality of thought" (Marx and Engels) becomes true if thought is the interweaving of neural processes underlying perception and the formation of motor programs. "Language is action" if beside the speech-elements (phonemes), the speech-element compounds (words) and speech sequences (syntax) one can set a motor-alphabet (of elementary motor programs for bodily action), motor-words (actions formed from motor-elements) and motor-sentences (formed from sequences of motor-words).