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In this chapter, I provide an overview of the empirical research on the topic of theory of mind in nonhuman primates. The expression “theory of mind” (or mindreading) refers to the cognitive capacity to attribute mental states to self and others in order to interpret, predict, and explain behavior. It was originally coined in 1978 by Premack and Woodruff in an article in which the two authors advanced the idea that the chimpanzee could attribute mental states to humans. I discuss the debate that followed the publication of Premack and Woodruff’s paper. Specifically, I show that central to this debate is the question of whether any nonhuman apes exhibit false-belief understanding, which is considered the signature of mindreading. Recent experiments showed that chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans can pass several false-belief tests, adapted from paradigms originally developed for human infants with no language abilities. These findings open the way to the possibility the nonhuman apes have, at some degree, rudimentary capacities for representing and attributing mental states to others and that these capacities represent the evolutionary precursors of human theory of mind.

In this paper, we offer some insights that might contribute to the debate about English as a lingua franca (ELF) by addressing some aspects related to the broader topic of language acquisition and evolution. Specifically, it is our claim that some features related to the emergence of ELF can be explained in reference to the ‘bottleneck of communication’ generated by the sensory and memory processing constraints involved in language production and comprehension. We will refer to the usage-based perspectives to language (e.g. Tomasello 2003) according to which the bottleneck provides a constraint that affects the language system, both at the processing and acquisition level, leading to predictive and rapid learning processes that, in turn, cause an item-based language change: those linguistic forms that are easier to learn and more efficient from a communicative point of view will tend to spread and supplant those that are not functional to communication. On an evolutionary timescale, a similar adaptation process can shape the languages in accordance with a tendency to simplification and uniformity. Such a tendency might be responsible for the emergence of a global language that serves communicative purpose. In the light of these considerations, a systematic use of ELF can be explained within an integrated framework that focuses on the contribution of more general processes of language acquisition, change and evolution., Status Quaestionis, N. 19 (2020): An Interdisciplinary Approach to English as a Lingua Franca

Il volume, in un’ottica cognitiva, affronta il tema delle patologie del linguaggio coniugando la riflessione teorica con le più recenti evidenze empiriche provenienti dalle neuroscienze, dalla neuropsicologia e dalla psicopatologia. Tra i casi presi in esame, ampio spazio è dedicato alla discussione dei deficit comunicativi che caratterizzano patologie quali la sindrome dello spettro autistico, il trauma cranico, la schizofrenia e la demenza di Alzheimer. In casi del genere, i disturbi linguistici e comunicativi chiamano in causa la dimensione pragmatica del linguaggio e dipendono da deficit che coinvolgono in primo luogo la sfera cognitiva e solo in seconda istanza la dimensione specificatamente linguistica. Lo studio dei disturbi pragmatici diventa, così, un modo particolarmente proficuo per indagare una questione più generale di estremo interesse da un punto di vista teorico: i rapporti tra linguaggio e cognizione.

The idea that the phrase is the essence of human language is a conceptual hypothesis that was strongly supported in the 20th century by the fathers of standard cognitive science. According to Chomsky (e.g. 1980, 1986), the devices at the foundation of the language faculty are those that elaborate the constituent structure of sentences, and according to Fodor (1975, 2008), the predicative structure of the sentence reflects the propositional structure of Language of Thought. Underpinning the primacy of the phrase in these authors’ work is a way to propose a specific conception of language and cognition. In fact, the idea that language competence is a device that analyses the shape (syntax) of symbols regardless of their content and the relationship between the uttered expression and its context is part of a broader conception of how to analyse the study of the mind in classical cognitive science. Against this standard view, we maintain in this paper that the nature of language (i.e. its functioning and origin) needs to be analysed in reference to the human pragmatic capacity to build coherent discourses rather than to the ability to construct syntactical well-formed sentences, as Chomsky and Fodor suggested. Specifically, our main aim is to demonstrate that the flux of discourse is governed by global coherence and that the cognitive systems implicated in processing flux of discourse are the same systems that enable individuals to navigate space and time.

L’assunto alla base di questo articolo è che le caratteristiche essenziali della comunicazione umana siano individuabili sul piano del discorso. Nello specifico, la nostra proposta è che il linguaggio abbia una natura eminentemente narrativa. Nell’ottica cognitiva in cui si colloca la nostra riflessione, il riferimento al piano narrativo comporta due ordini di considerazioni: la prima è che la capacità di elaborare la struttura in costituenti della frase (microanalisi) non possa essere considerata condizione sufficiente a garantire il funzionamento corretto del processo comunicativo; la seconda è che le proprietà e i sistemi cognitivi che presiedono alla produzione-comprensione del discorso (macroanalisi) debbano essere di natura molto diversa da quelli ipotizzati dai fautori del primato accordato all’analisi in costituenti della frase. Seguendo questo ordine di considerazioni, l’ipotesi che avanziamo è che la narrazione abbia un carattere intrinsecamente temporale e che l’elaborazione narrativa sfrutti le capacità di proiezione nel tempo di uno specifico dispositivo cognitivo: il Mental Time Travel.

In this article we propose that executive functions play a key role in the origin of language. Our proposal is based on the methodological assumption that some of the cognitive systems involved in language functioning are also involved in its phylogenetic origin. In this regard, we demonstrate that a key property of language functioning is discourse coherence. Such property is not dependent on grammatical elements but rather is processed by cognitive systems that are not specific for language, namely the executive functions systems of action planning, control and organization. Data from cognitive archaeology on the making of stone tools show that the processes requested to produce Prehistoric tools imply action organization operations similar to those involved in the processing of coherence. Based on these considerations, we propose that executive functions represent the link between stone tool making and language origins and suggest that they allowed our ancestors to develop forms of proto-discourse governed by coherence.

This paper analyzes the cognitive foundations of discursive coherence. The theoretical models that equate language with grammar and linguistic processing with sentence processing explain discourse coherence in terms of the linear relations of cohesion between consecutive sentences. Against such models, this paper shows that discourse coherence cannot be interpreted in reference to the cohesive ties between the individual sentences. Through the discussion of theoretical arguments and empirical data, it is shown that coherence is not dependent on linguistic features but is rather a property that is processed by cognitive systems that are not specific for language. The hypothesis is that discourse coherence primarily concerns the organization of thoughts rather than the organization of language, and that it is dependent on executive functions responsible for action planning and monitoring.