The motor theory of language
origin and function
pp. 105-119
in: Jan Wind, Brunetto Chiarelli, Bernard Bichakjian, Alberto Nocentini, Abraham Jonker (eds), Language origin, Berlin, Springer, 1992Abstract
The earliest development of the nervous system was for motor control. The complex organisation of the pre-existing motor system served as a foundation for elaboration of the language capacity. Features which made a wide range of skilled action possible — a set of elementary motor subprograms together with rules expresssed in neural organisation for combining subprograms into extended action sequences — were transferred to form a parallel set of programs and rules for speech and language. The already established integration of motor control with perceptual organisation led directly to the integration of language also with the perceptual system and thus to a systematic relation between language and the externally-perceived world. The effects of motor control as the origin and continuing foundation for language can be seen in current phonological, lexical and syntactic forms and structures.