Human existence

Syntax will always be a puzzle until we know where it came from

Language syntax I show here arose from the syntactic organization of the internal descriptions of motor actions needed for brain areas to 'talk' with each other during the course of doing things.

Efficient motor control involves communication between separated motor areas in the cerebellum, basal ganglia, the two cerebral hemispheres, hippocampus, inferior olive, red nucleus and various other brain stem and spinal nuclei: brain syntax, I suggest, enables them to transfer to each other detailed information about movements while they are being planned and carried out. Such communication (a) is extensive, (b) concerns complex descriptions of the type that would require a syntactic framework, and (c) would be readily transferred through 'mirror neurons' into language.

Is brain syntax the origin and organ of linguistic syntax? (Linguistlist 11/11-345) click here