Transcript No Slide Title

MOTOR EQUIVALENCE
The central element of the motor theory of language
MOTOR EQUIVALENCE
(with the underlying motor basis of perception)
To convert:
an action into equivalent action
word into action
action into word
word into gesture
gesture into word
word into sound
sound into word
visual percept into word
visual percept into gesture
WORD SOUND/MEANING CATEGORIES
The sound-structure of a word can represent the meaning of the
word in a number of ways:
Most straightforwardly the word can sound like its meaning.
Examples: hiss, wail, sigh, cuckoo, tick-tock, ding-dong.
A word can generate indirectly a sound representing what the
word means. The names of many animals are in this category
with other words referring to things which produce sounds.
Examples: cat, dog, wolf, wasp, bell, whistle, klaxon, thunder,
wind.
A word can directly reproduce the action to which it refers.
Examples: spit, suck, chew, yawn, sneer.
A word can generate a deictic gesture, that is, a gesture which
involves pointing to what the word refers to. Words for many
body parts and some pronouns are in this category. Examples:
head, ear, eye, you, he.
A word can generate an action which represents what the
word refers to. This is similar to deictic words. Many function
words fall in this category as well as many simple action
verbs. Examples: this, that, at, forward, back, hit, throw, take,
push, point, pluck, pick, sew, heavy, light.
A word may generate a gesture which outlines what the word
refers to. Examples: arch, edge, heap.
A word may generate an action picturing the use of an object
referred to. Example: needle,
A word may generate a picturing action plus an associated
sound. Examples: whip, air, fire.
A word may generate a gesture which amounts to the
'showing' of what the word refers to. This is particularly the
case for body parts. Examples: hand, arm, elbow, wrist.
A word may generate a deictic gesture plus an action
gesture. Examples: hat, flower.
A word may generate a complex containing visual, sound,
deictic or other elements. Examples: snake, rain.
A word may generate an internal feeling or action. Words
for emotions seem to come in this category. Examples:
bitter, sweet, sour, sad, angry, cheerful.
A word may generate an action or an internal feeling for an
abstract, non-concrete meaning. Examples: remember,
understand, know. The associated actions may
metaphorically represent the meaning e.g. elevate, separate,
grasp, spontaneous.
A word may generate a movement or position specifically
referring to an aspect of time. Examples: now, then
Click to see Illustrative List of words where the
sound/meaning relation falls in one or other of the above
categories.
The neural basis of the word sound/meaning equivalences is
explained in terms of the Motor Theory of Language and of the
integration of Perception and the Motor System.
MOTOR THEORY OF LANGUAGE
MOTOR THEORY OF
LANGUAGE
The Motor Theory is a theory of the origin and functioning of language. The theory is
that the structures of language (phonological, lexical and syntactic) were derived from
and modelled on the pre-existing complex neural systems which had evolved for the
control of body movement. Motor control at the neural level requires pre-set elementary
units of action which can be integrated into more extended patterns of bodily action -neural motor programs. Speech is essentially a motor activity (a stream of articulatory
gestures). Language made use of the elementary pre-set units of motor action to
produce equivalent phonological units (phonemic categories). The neural programs for
individual words were constructed from the elementary units in the same way as motor
programs for bodily action. The syntactic processes and structures of language were
modelled on the motor ‘syntax’.
PROPOSITIONS
1. There are basic (innate) elementary neural motor programs from
which all bodily movements are constructed
2. These elementary motor programs control all the precise ballistic and
targeted movements of the hand and arm
3. The elementary programs when redirected to the articulatory organs
produce an equivalent set of elementary speech sounds (elementary
articulatory gestures)
4. Every articulatory program can be redirected (through motor
equivalence) to produce an equivalent movement of the hand and arm
5. Gestures of the hand and arm are structured by the contours of
perceived objects or of larger bodily actions
6 Every gesture structured by a perceived object or action can be
redirected to produce an equivalent articulatory action
PROPOSITION 1
1. There are basic (innate) elementary neural motor programs from
which all bodily movements are constructed
"Both the effects of simplifying the dynamics computation and the limitations of
feedback control in biological arms ... strongly suggest that there must exist
substantially correct preprograms in order for humans to make accurate fast arm
movements."(Hollerbach 1985: 140)
"A Vocabulary of Motor Acts. ... We propose that in inferior area 6 there is a
vocabulary of elementary motor acts coded at the single neuron level. This
vocabulary is essentially related to arm-mouth movements." (Rizzolatti and
Gentilucci 1988: 281)
"Movement plans may be complex in the sense of being composed of separable
component tasks. These components may be coordinated at some level by the
voluntary motor system, in order to combine tasks into appropriate actions ."
(Haggard 1991: 153)
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be
de executed”
mouvements facilement déclenchables” (Berthoz 1997: 152, 176)
PROPOSITION 3
3. The elementary programs when redirected to the articulatory organs
produce an equivalent set of elementary speech sounds (elementary
articulatory gestures)
Articulatory phonology takes seriously the view that the units of speech
production are actions, and therefore that they are dynamic, not static.
(Haskins Laboratories)
“Utterances are modeled as organized patterns ... of gestures, in which gestural
units may overlap in time. The phonological structures defined in this way provide
a set of articulatorily based natural classes” (Browman and Goldstein 1992: 155)
“Such gestures not only can characterize the movements of the speech articulators
but also can act as phonological primitives” (Browman and Goldstein 1990: 313)
PROPOSITION 4
4. Every articulatory program can be redirected (through
motor equivalence) to produce an equivalent movement of
the hand and arm
MOTOR EQUIVALENCE
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par 'équivalence
une propriété
simple et
remarquable
“ ‘Motor
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is the termmotrice'
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brain
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enwalking
me promenant
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“(Berthoz
1997:
246)
(Berthoz
1997:
246)
"comparing findings on the motor organization of speech with the organization of
voluntary movements about the elbow ...We have found that the kinematic
patterns for movements of the tongue dorsum were similar to those of voluntary
flexion-extension movements about the elbow" (Ostry and Cooke 1987: 223).
"the task dynamic model we are using for speech was exactly the model used
for controlling arm movements, with the articulators of the vocal tract simply
substituted for those of the arm." (Browman and Goldstein 1991: 314)
PROPOSITION 5
5. Gestures of the hand and arm are structured by the contours
of perceived objects or of larger bodily actions
"While people talk, they also use their hands. 'illustrative gestures' are used to
indicate shapes, sizes, directions and to point, for example to describe a spiral
staircase. .. Where illustrative gestures are similar in form to their reference,
emblems [gestures with arbitrary meanings] usually are not" (Argyle 1987:63)
A gesture may be an indication. This is perhaps not so much resemblance as a
variant of the action-gesture. The most rudimentary gesture is to point to the
object referred to or more particularly to the feature of the body referred to. A
gesture for the ear is to point to or touch the ear - and so on.
"We respond to gestures with an extreme alertness and, one might almost say, in
accordance with an elaborate and secret code that is written nowhere, known by
none and understood by all." (Sapir quoted by Plutchik 1980: 269)
“Iconic gestures appear to be images of concepts and imply the existence of
schemas which produce them” (McNeill 1981: 203)
PROPOSITION 6
6 Every gesture structured by a perceived object or action can be
redirected to produce an equivalent articulatory action
GESTURE AND SPEECH AS LINKED PROCESSES
"speech and gesture arise as interacting elements of a single system”
(McNeill 1987: 503)
"The central thesis is that the visual system and the motor system are
functionally inseparable ... they are components of a unified perceptuo-motor
system, which is itself a component of the organism-environment system." (Lee
1980: 281)
“Visually directed action implies continuous transformation of incoming visual
stimuli into motor commands.” (Jeannerod 1986: 41)